I suspect that most readers will not be surprised to learn that I am pleased to see that we in the blogosphere are beginning to see some of my fellow philanthropy bloggers plead for a more balanced and reasonable view of effectiveness measures for non profit success. For the last few years, most of the noise has been from those who push for ever more sophisticated metrics, outcome measures, effectiveness indices, ratios, and the like. While well intentioned, read together, these attempts at applying some sort of “objectivity” to the grantmaking process and the results by the recipients have often served to straitjacket the process, force unrealistic and frankly meaningless and premature measures on npo’s/ngo’s, and distort the ability to get at what really matters. In fairness, much of … Continue Reading
New Model for Maximizing Impact
With release of its inaugural set of research reports, Root Cause has unveiled a new and unprecedented way to help nonprofit donors, financial advisors and government decide how to invest in nonprofits with high impact. The first report in the new model synthesizes the most current national research on school readiness programs for at-risk children, and then names 21 high-performing organizations in Massachusetts. The analysts say the new approach fills an information gap for donors, by providing them with more rigorous, research-based recommendations than previously available, to make the most effective decisions in investing for high impact. Reports that identify high-performing nonprofits in other social issue areas are in development. “We’re hoping for a future where the strongest … Continue Reading
JESNA’S Pick for the Best in Jewish Education of the Decade
by Jonathan Woocher The dawn of a new decade has brought with it a flurry of retrospectives assessing the first ten years of the 21st century. Clearly, there's been much to cause discouragement, anxiety, and concern. But, as we at JESNA look back on the past decade in Jewish education, we also find much to celebrate. In fact, it's been a pretty good decade for Jewish learning, not without its challenges and disappointments, but one marked by many exciting developments, new ideas, and promising directions. So, in the spirit of the new decade, with perhaps a touch of the Oscars thrown in, here is our JESNA "Top Ten" list of achievements, developments, ideas, and trends in Jewish education worthy of note and gratification (in no special order). And, since we're Jewish, we can't resist giving you … Continue Reading
Do You Have a Funding Model?
from the Stanford Social Innovation Review: Ten Nonprofit Funding Models Money is a constant topic of conversation among nonprofit leaders: How much do we need? Where can we find it? Why isn’t there more of it? In tough economic times, these types of questions become more frequent and pressing. Unfortunately, the answers are not readily available. That’s because nonprofit leaders are much more sophisticated about creating programs than they are about funding their organizations, and philanthropists often struggle to understand the impact (and limitations) of their donations. There are consequences to this financial fuzziness. When nonprofits and funding sources are not well matched, money doesn’t flow to the areas where it will do the greatest good. Too often, the result is that … Continue Reading
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