Fw: VPPNews: March Issue
 "When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." George Washington CarverWhat is Social Entrepreneurship?Statement of FaithYou can find other "Market with Meaning" but you definitely want to see "Profit with Purpose". I personally "Believe in Kingdom Transformation" because I know there is only ONE "Life for Significant". --- 2010年3月11日 星期四，Venture Philanthropy Partners <vvrana@vppartners.org> 寫道﹕
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'Social Outcomes': The Elephants in the Room
In my last column, “‘Social Outcomes’: Missing the Forest for the Trees?,” I wrote about my deep, nagging fear that many efforts to assess outcomes are woefully off track. I pointed to several wonderful beams of shining light in the field, from Youth Villages to the Cleveland Clinic. But my dominant message was that many efforts in our sector are causing more harm than good. That column hit a nerve, triggering a volume and intensity of responses far greater than I had expected.
After struggling though literally 20 drafts, I wasn’t sure whether the piece was even coherent. Yet, it seemingly made some sense to a good number of thought leaders and practitioners I greatly respect—along with many others I don’t know who apparently care deeply about this issue as well.
Of course, not everyone agreed with my analysis. In fact, I got hard pushback on some points, and a few commentators wondered why it had taken me so long to own up to my own limitations in my approach over the years to the topic of outcomes.
The majority, however, agreed with the thesis that we’ve lost sight of the ends we’re trying to advance. In the wise words of David Hunter, Managing Partner of Hunter Consulting and former Director of Assessment for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation: “It seems to me that the mess you describe indeed is enormous and very destructive—because few people involved in this work have thought deeply about managing towards outcomes and [they] have put the cart before the horse—focusing…on HOW to measure rather than on WHY measure…and WHAT to measure.”
Sins of Commission, Sins of Omission
The feedback confirmed for me that nonprofit executives, staff, and boards; donors; and assessment experts are deeply frustrated with our sector’s work around outcomes.
- I heard a lot of anger at funders who don’t walk (or fund) their talk.
- I heard exasperation with nonprofits that are unwilling to embrace even basic methods of determining whether they’re doing what they say they do.
- I heard disappointment that outcomes assessment has become an exercise focused on cold numbers—the equivalent of Robert McNamara’s simplistic and terribly misleading Vietnam body counts—rather than an effort to help nonprofit leaders achieve lasting impact for those they serve.
We must be intentional about surfacing these roiling frustrations that are rarely getting voiced. If we don’t, we’re going to continue to perpetrate sins of commission and omission that prevent us from making even the slightest dent in the failing status quo that defines education, healthcare, and social services in America.
The most common sin of commission is when we funders, in the name of “measurement” and “accountability,” foist unfunded, often overly simplistic, self-serving mandates on our grantees—rather than genuinely helping them define, create, and use the information they need to be disciplined managers. In the words of Tris Lumley, Head of Strategy for London-based New Philanthropy Capital, “Great organisations…are built around great data. Data that allows them to understand the needs they address, what activities are likely to best address these needs, what actually happens as a result of these activities, and how to allocate resources and tweak what they do for even greater impact. Too often, funders set the agenda with their own requirements [and] cripple the organisations they’re trying to help.”
The sin of omission I often see is when funders and nonprofits run away from outcomes and their measurement altogether—that is, nothing assesses whether nonprofits are delivering on their promises to the families who turn to them for services. As Hunter said, “It is a really, really bad thing for nonprofits to promise to help people improve their lives and prospects...and then, when the matter is looked at closely, it turns out that they aren’t doing that at all!”
It’s About Management, Not Metrics
Based on all the feedback, it is clear to me that our sector needs a major reset on the approach to outcomes—from how we think about them to how we assess them.
If I were a real innovator, I would invent one of those memory-erasing devices that sometimes pop up in science fiction movies and immediately use it to erase every frustrating memory we have built up though our experiences with metrics, measurement, outcomes, and evaluation. With everyone starting with a clean slate and open mind, I would make the case that more than anything else, our sector needs a singular focus on managing to outcomes. And here’s precisely what I mean:
- Gain clarity, through thoughtful introspection, on what change we are trying to create;
- Gain specificity on how we will accomplish that change;
- Determine what information (hard and soft) will be most helpful to understand if we are on course to achieve that change;
- Collect and use this information as a basis for being disciplined within mission—that is, to plan, make important decisions, track, course correct, and improve;
- Combine all of the above with good judgment and keen discernment, which are more important than any metric.
In my experience, some nonprofit leaders inherently think in terms of outcomes or are at least open to doing so. They bring more than intuition and personal agenda; think deeply about the what, how, and why of their services; are evidence-based; and talk naturally and frequently about the change happening in the lives of those they serve. These leaders are genuinely hungry for reliable information to assess their value to those they serve. They want to manage to outcomes. It’s no surprise that these are the leaders we look for in prospective VPP partners.
Leaders who have an innate desire for good information that is aligned with their mission are the ones most likely to develop a true performance culture and make a real difference in the lives of those they serve. And before those readers who rebel against the term “performance culture” get too incensed, please step back from the jargon and debates of the times and ask, “How can anyone with a deep commitment to their mission not want to be rigorous in determining how they can do the most good for those they serve?” This is what I seek to convey when I use the term.
We have also found that using information to manage to outcomes and having a performance culture are absolutely dependent on an attitude and mindset that must come from within. Trying to impose this orientation on leaders and organizations is as constructive as trying to foist change on your spouse. As my better half will tell you (with a resigned sigh), it ain’t gonna happen.
What Managing to Outcomes Looks Like
Geoff Canada, founder and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone and one of my heroes, raised a stir with some provocative comments that were published in the New York publication City Limits.
When Canada was asked to define success for HCZ, he said, “The only benchmark of success is college graduation. That’s the only one: How many kids you got in college, how many kids you got out.”
Canada could not have been clearer on the ultimate outcomes HCZ is focused on achieving. It’s not improving reading levels. It’s not getting kids to graduate high school. It’s not helping kids get into college. To HCZ, these are important interim indicators to ensure they are moving in the right direction, but, ultimately, it’s ensuring those young people make it through college that matters.
With that great clarity as a starting point, Canada and his team, with the help of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Bridgespan, and others, have gotten good at identifying the information they need to collect in order to manage to these outcomes. Are all the kids in the HCZ graduating from college? Of course not. But HCZ is on a very promising path.
A Challenge to Us All
Based on what I’ve learned over the years—through my work with VPP; my direct engagement with schools and hospitals in the Cleveland area; my observations of HCZ and other innovators; and my own experience implementing information systems in my business career—I have some thoughts on how we can get from a place of pent-up frustrations to a place of real progress. My next column will go into greater detail, but here is an overview of what’s to come.
If you agree that many efforts in our sector to assess outcomes are causing more harm than good, you can do something right now. Whether a funder, nonprofit executive, staff member, board member, or beneficiary of nonprofit services, you are likely in one of two situations you can influence.
If you’re not focused on outcomes (or doing very little), then please recognize that you—the executives, staff, board, and funders—have an affirmative obligation to engage. It’s mission-critical to know whether you’re on track to deliver what you promise to those you serve. I have great respect for leaders’ intuition, but intuition alone is almost never enough.
If your nonprofit has defined your intended outcomes and maybe even progressed to reporting on them, then please stop, step back, and rigorously question what you’ve done (or plan to do). Rather than think of this as a step backward, realize it may be the first step toward course correcting and getting on a truly productive track.
In either case, please remember the critical, first-order question, “To what end?” Think about Geoff Canada. Are you on a path to gain the clarity he has achieved (after many years of struggle!) on the ends he’s trying to advance for the children and young people he serves? These are difficult and fundamental questions that you owe yourself and those your nonprofit serves to answer honestly and with deep introspection.
I encourage nonprofits to undertake facilitated discussions, perhaps inviting informed voices to brief their boards and staff. For example, I’ve been fortunate to be deeply engaged with The Lawrence School in Northeast Ohio, which serves grades 1-12 students with learning differences and attention-deficit disorders. We have benefited greatly by having a facilitator—a seasoned, skilled professional who understands management and organizations well—lead working groups of board and staff to sort out and define fundamental aspects of what the school does and represents. The facilitator has helped us conduct concerted and lengthy efforts to gain greater clarity of mission and vision and define the school’s guiding principles and underlying values. Similarly, discussions are well along to clarify and explain more clearly whom the school serves and to define, with specificity, its educational model and how it differentiates itself from other educational approaches. These are difficult matters to take on, but, with a leadership that has embraced this approach and put trust in the process, the gains have been nothing short of transformational.
None of this suggests in any way that summative and formative evaluation are not important, particularly for building information about what works and what doesn’t for the field or a discipline. But if we really want to help organizations deliver quality services most effectively, then our priority must be on identifying the nonprofits with the willingness, propensity, and capacity to manage to outcomes—and then helping them do just that. This will require major commitments of time and money to help these nonprofits build their culture of information-based introspection and the performance-management systems that can deliver the information they need on an ongoing basis, while never losing an ounce of their mission-driven passion.
Thanks to all who took the time to offer comments on my last column—both pushback and push-forward. Surfacing your frustrations helped me refine and crystallize my thinking, so keep ‘em coming!
Investor Profile: Kathy Calvin
Kathy Bushkin Calvin is no stranger to the world of philanthropy – or government, or business, for that matter. Currently CEO of the United Nations Foundation, she can claim careers in all three sectors: “I was in politics before politics got nasty, in journalism before it was taken apart by the internet, and now philanthropy at a time when so much innovation and risk-taking are happening. It’s exciting to be here now.”
A hybrid herself, it is uniquely appropriate that Calvin works at the UN Foundation, a nonprofit organization that also supports and works with government, and was founded by a business titan, Ted Turner, who is now a titan in the philanthropic world. “The philanthropic and business sectors, maybe even government, are moving towards the hybrid model – it’s true that the bottom line matters, and impact is essential, but you must also have that global worldview and compassion. The message of the 21st century is that it truly takes a village.”
Calvin’s broad understanding of business and philanthropy was incubated during her time at AOL, when she was President of the AOL Time Warner Foundation. AOL had embraced innovation in its giving, providing not only funds, but pathways to the internet for the nonprofits that it supported. The foundation also focused heavily on the National Capital Region, becoming involved with DC area schools and community foundations. When Mario Morino asked her to become a founding investor in Venture Philanthropy Partners, she and her then-husband Art Bushkin said yes immediately. “We believed in venture philanthropy, and in what Mario was doing. VPP was an exciting new model,” she says.
As might be expected of someone who believes in high-engagement philanthropy, Calvin has invested more than just money in VPP. She originated VPP’s Women’s Dinners, which convene a few times a year to introduce potential women investors to VPP. The idea came to Calvin at a photo shoot for Washington Life Magazine that featured VPP’s founders and investors: “I wondered, why was I the only woman in this picture? I realized there weren’t nearly as many women as there could or should be.” She spoke with Mario and VPP President Carol Thompson Cole, and the Women’s Dinner was born. Calvin hosted the first few gatherings and led the way for other women investors to take on this important role of growing VPP’s community of women investors and donors. These women-only dinners have spurred both greater engagement with and greater awareness of VPP and its model, and helped to secure significant funding. In fact, due to these dinners, four investor level commitments have been made and one donor level gift has been secured. As Calvin says, “We [women] come out of a history of volunteering; I think we generally want to be more engaged and involved, which makes the VPP model a natural fit for us.”
At the UN Foundation, some of Calvin’s proudest work has also been with women – adolescent ones, that is. “We found that adolescent girls were a gap in the UN programming; they’re the missing, critical link. We know that if we don’t keep a girl in school, if we don’t help her plan her family, and delay marriage, we are condemning her to a life of poverty.” To fill this gap, the UN Foundation has started a fund that will support an integrated UN program to invest in education, health, and community initiatives for young women in the developing world.
When it comes to her own personal philanthropy, Calvin tends to support organizations in three broad categories: women and children, freedom of the press, and access to information. She sits on the boards of the Newseum and Internews, and is involved closely with the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. Local organizations appeal to her greatly, since in her career she deals mostly on an international level; because of this, she says, she would almost always rather give deep than wide, and she loves to support groups that have deep roots in the communities they serve.
When asked what advice she would offer to those just beginning to give, Calvin recommends, “Start with your passion – you first have to find out what that is.” Then, she says, decide whether you need to see, feel, and touch the results or not, which would help you decide whether you want to become involved with smaller service organizations or advocacy groups. A major point to give some thought to is collaboration, such as participating in a giving circle or a more formal investment organization like VPP. “Partnerships make you stronger…when it comes to a return on your investment, I find that the collaborative model is hard to beat,” says Calvin. “When you invest in an entity that has similar goals to yours, you’re able to accomplish so much more.”
VPP's Business Manager Manon Matchett Named Special Assistant to the President and CEO
Venture Philanthropy Partners welcomes Manon Matchett, business manager at VPP, to her new role as Special Assistant to the President and CEO. Matchett has worked with VPP in various capacities since the organization’s founding in 2000, and has substantial knowledge of VPP’s mission, model, and operations. As business manager, her duties included business administration, accounting, web production, operational support, and research. In her new capacity as Special Assistant, she will support the President and CEO through research, scheduling, briefing, monitoring, and reporting.
“Manon combines an incredible attention to detail with problem solving and a rich understanding of VPP’s work and the community in which we exist—in its many, varied forms. I am very pleased she has accepted this new opportunity with VPP and that we can continue to benefit from her skills and talents as applied to a different piece of our work,” said Carol Thompson Cole, President and CEO.
Prior to her work at VPP, Matchett served as executive assistant to the chief executive officer and executive director of the American Nurses Association. She also worked for five years at the Department of Commerce in the International Trade Administration. Matchett attended Howard University in pursuit of a BBA in International Business Administration.
VPP Board Member, Bob Templin, Testifies on Senate Panel
Dr. Bob Templin, VPP board member and President of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), participated in a panel at the U.S. Senate titled “A Stronger Workforce Investment System for a Stronger Economy.” Dr. Templin discussed NOVA’s partnership with VPP investment partner Year Up as one example of an innovative way to bridge the Opportunity Divide: “Within four months of graduating, nearly 80% of Year Up completers are employed with average earnings of over $35,000 a year.” Click here to watch his testimony, starting at minute 90, or here to read it.
VPP Article Makes Stanford Social Innovation Reviews List of Top Five Opinion Blogs
Mario Morino’s article “The Innovation Imperative” was one of the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s (SSIR) top five opinion blogs of 2009, based on the number of hits the post received. The article was first published in the April 2009 issue of VPPNews.
VPP Co-Founder Jack Davies Presents at the Mid-Atlantic Venture Associations (MAVA) 7 on 7
VPP founding investor and board member Jack Davies was one of seven thought leaders to present remarks at MAVA’s inaugural 7 on 7 Breakfast. Each speaker was given seven minutes to address a critical topic, ranging from “Succeeding as an Entrepreneur While Fulfilling One’s Passion” to “Future Trends in Higher Education.” Davies’ talk, titled “The Changing Landscape of Philanthropy and Corporate Giving,” offered insights into his own experiences with venture philanthropy and some of the lessons learned throughout his philanthropic journey. To read his full remarks, click here.
Programs & Services
Dora the Explorer To Visit Marys Center as Part of its 2010 Census Efforts
Thanks to Lyda Vanegas, Advocacy and Communications Manager, for this update.
Mary’s Center is participating in many activities in support of the 2010 Census, but one of the most exciting ones – at least, according to some of Mary’s Center’s smaller clients – is the upcoming visit of Dora the Explorer, on March 9th.
Nickelodeon, in partnership with the US Census Bureau, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Mary’s Center, will bring Dora the Explorer to Mary’s Center to interact with children and to launch a bilingual Public Service Announcement (PSA) aimed at encouraging the counting of children in the Census.
“With Dora the Explorer’s message, in addition to the educational
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