| Dear Friends, | | For those of us in northern climates, now is a time to watch spring’s seeds flower into the myriad plants that delight, shade, and feed us. With nonprofits like Nurse-Family Partnership, Youth Villages, and Teach For America becoming ever-more active nationwide, now is also a time to watch seeds of social change sown years ago replicating and shooting up in similarly robust fashion. But the spectrum of ways in which nonprofits are increasing their impact ranges far beyond replication. This issue of Bridgespan’s Knowledge Letter highlights some of the other ways that nonprofits are growing their impact. Our main feature, "Scaling Impact," published recently in Stanford Social Innovation Review, looks at how nonprofits can harness technology, advocacy, and leadership to extend their organizations' reach. By way of example, our guest blog on Edutopia advocates scaling the reach of effective teachers beyond the "little red schoolhouse," in large part via technology. Another example: "Getting Clear, Real and Better," published in Monday Developments (and drawing on a previous article, "Galvanizing Philanthropy," in Harvard Business Review), describes the way Goldman Sachs’ corporate foundation scaled the economic empowerment of women by investing in their business education and leadership capacity. Variations on these themes and others surfaced in Bridgespan’s 10-year anniversary panel discussion on global development. Finally, our featured opinion piece, "Donating $600 Billion Is Just Step One," focuses on the funding side of scaling impact through the lens of the recent Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates’ challenge to America’s richest individuals to pledge at least half their wealth to benefit society. Ensuring that the funding flows that emerge from this challenge seed perennial change will require not only smart investing, but also productive and mutually respectful relationships between the donors and those they choose to fund. Sincerely, Katie Smith Milway
Knowledge Partner | | |
| Scaling Impact
Jeffrey Bradach | | There may be no idea with greater currency in the social sector today than “scaling what works.” The concept even caught the attention of the Obama administration, which announced during its first year several multimillion- or billion-dollar programs (including the Social Innovation Fund and Promise Neighborhoods) that focus on expanding proven-effective programs to new locations. This government effort builds on the work of innovative social entrepreneurs and represents an opportunity to tackle some of society’s most intractable problems. This article, originally published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, highlights tools and strategies pioneers have identified to help nonprofit organizations expand their impact beyond what their size would seem capable of generating.
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| Getting Clear, Real and Better
Jeri Eckhart-Queenan, Susan Wolf Ditkoff, and Susan J. Colby | Today, philanthropists and foundation leaders are tackling tough questions to better define the problems they are trying to resolve, chart effective courses towards these ends, and continuously improve their methods. In other words, they are getting clear about what success looks like, getting real about what it takes to make change happen, and are committed to getting better over time. In this article published in Monday Developments (and based on an earlier work in Harvard Business Review), the authors look at how this approach to philanthropy can increase economic empowerment in developing countries, via the case of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women Initiative.
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| Addressing Global Social Challenges: Panelists Discuss Optimal Paths to Impact
Bridgespan Group | Philanthropists, foundations, NGOs, governments, venerable businesses, and tiny start-ups work hard on behalf of the world’s most disadvantaged populations, and almost always they wish they could do much more. What are the most effective approaches to achieve global change? And how can these different sectors learn from and harness each others’ strengths to increase their impact? A panel of speakers representing diverse vantage points discussed possible answers to these questions during a global development session held in May 2010 as part of the Bridgespan Group’s 10th anniversary celebration.
| Donating $600 Billion is Just Step One
Susan Wolf Ditkoff and Thomas J. Tierney | | Warren Buffett, teaming with Bill and Melinda Gates, has challenged America’s most wealthy people to give away at least half of their net worth to charity—potentially totaling $600-billion. Billionaires, including Eli and Edythe Broad, John and Ann Doerr, H.F. (Gerry) and Marguerite Lenfest, and John and Tashia Morgridge, have taken the pledge, ushering in a game-changing moment for philanthropy. Philanthropists frequently aspire to be innovators and catalysts. Now they have a chance to step up to the challenge—by directing money toward programs that work and away from those that don’t, and by being disciplined enough to hold themselves accountable for real results. This op-ed, which originally appeared on Philanthropy.com, discusses how philanthropists can consider meeting the challenge. | | | | On Edutopia | Budget Crises and Technology Could Break the Mold of the Little Red Schoolhouse
Susan J. Colby and Caitrin Moran Wright | | Four flaws persist in our current educational template: a lack of personalized content for each student, an inability to cater to individual learning styles, a one-size-fits all instructional style for teachers, and a set of costs that far exceed the rest of the world’s but with worse results. In this guest weblog post on Edutopia, Bridgespan Partner Susan J. Colby and Manager Caitrin Moran Wright offer four examples of how technology and redesigned teaching methods can better help good teachers reach every student more effectively—even in budget-constrained environments. | | On the Harvard Business Review website | The Power of Positive Failure
David Simms | | What good can come from failing? The answer, it seems, is "a lot." Bridgespan Partner David Simms recently moderated a panel of nonprofit leaders titled, "So You Want To Be a Nonprofit Executive?" At one point, he asked each panelist to share a failure from which he or she had learned a valuable lesson. Believe it or not, they did so eagerly. Read what the nonprofit leaders had to share in Simm’s recent Harvard Business Review weblog post. | | | | | | How to Market Yourself in the Nonprofit Sector | In a buyers' market, simply being a talented candidate is oftentimes not enough to land a senior leadership role, so job seekers need to get out and sell themselves to prospective nonprofit employers. The idea of coming up with a personal marketing plan may be intimidating, but the six steps laid out in this article will help nonprofit job seekers put their best foot forward during a nonprofit job search.  | | Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view some documents referenced in this email. To obtain your free copy, click on the "Get Adobe Reader" button. |  | | | | | Copyright © 2010 The Bridgespan Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Bridgespan is a registered trademark of the Bridgespan Group, Inc. | |  | | Article: How can you get 100x the impact with only a 2x change in the size of the organization? | | | Features
Scaling Impact Getting Clear, Real and Better Addressing Global Social Challenges: Panelists Discuss Optimal Paths to Impact Donating $600 Billion is Just Step One Weblogs
Budget Crises and Technology Could Break the Mold of the Little Red Schoolhouse The Power of Positive Failure From Bridgestar.org
How to Market Yourself in the Nonprofit Sector | | | Media Mentions
"Social Outcomes and the Missionary Sell: Lifting Sights, Changing Norms," July 14, 2010, onPhilanthropy
(Bridgespan Chairman and Co-Founder Tom Tierney is noted as a sector expert on the topic of "managing outcomes" in this weblog post.) "9 Powerful Ideas for Nonprofits," July 14, 2010, Stanford Social Innovation Review
(Four Bridgespan articles—"Outrun the Recession," "The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle," "Money to Grow On," and "Ten Nonprofit Funding Models"—are referenced in this resource of powerful ideas compiled by editors of Stanford Social Innovation Review. ) "US charities mimic Wall St to woo wealthy donors," July 1, 2010, Reuters
(Bridgespan Co-founder and Chairman Thomas J. Tierney discussed engaged philanthropists in this news article about the efforts of U.S. nonprofits to appeal to wealthy donors via highlighting the social returns on their investments.) Read more media mentions>> | | Subscribe to The Bridgespan Knowledge Letter, Leaders Matter,and Bridgespan Alerts for information about our latest research and other resources. Click to subscribe >> |
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