Fw: VPPNews: October 2010
my buzz & my blog"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 Faith You 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". my facebook & my twitter & my linkedin --- 2010年10月7日 星期四，Venture Philanthropy Partners <jraderstrong@vppartners.org> 寫道﹕
| Delicious MySpace Google | ||||||
Transparency: Compliance-Driven or Culturally Ingrained?
Last fall, I argued here and here that several unstoppable trends were going to bring greater transparency to the social sector. I described how new online tools would soon make it possible for outsiders to peer far more deeply into grantmaking and grant-seeking organizations. But I failed to bring out the value and relevance of transparency for those who govern and run these organizations.
I’m revisiting this topic and filling in the gap in my argument as a logical follow-on to my recent columns—here, here, here, and here—on social outcomes. From my vantage point, an organization’s performance (its ability to achieve the outcomes at the core of its mission) and its transparency are highly intertwined and co-dependent. It is hard to envision how one can exist without the other.
Recently, I read a wonderful blog post on The Economist’s website that hit the nail on the head. The post focuses on the way transparency is being pushed in the corporate sector, but the authors’ insights apply equally well in a nonprofit context:
Transparency, it seems, is simply the latest attempt to make an old concept—truthfulness—trendy. Our mothers told us that lying is a bad thing; what we now call transparency is merely the embodiment of that advice. But just sharing ever more information will not save society from business malpractice and corporate psychopaths…. Customers and governments are not interested in more information, more numbers, more reports or more sophisticated press briefings. What civil society is seeking is trustworthy, relevant and understandable information about how a company runs its business and the features of the products and services it offers to the market.
What struck me was how the post presents transparency at its most basic and fundamental core. Transparency is about our value set and how we act on it—not about checking a set of boxes or posting a set of documents on a website. It is about the honesty, openness, and integrity we live by in governing and running our organizations and doing our jobs. I staunchly maintain that it is far more important for an organization to be open and transparent in the way it functions and manages its internal actions—how it plans, executes, makes decisions, engages, and assesses—than for the organization to do most of the things that typically fall under the rubric of “transparency.” True transparency is culturally ingrained in the DNA of the organization. It encourages constructive questioning and honest probing focused on mission and guided by core beliefs. And it demonstrates high integrity in big and little decisions and actions.
Smoke vs. Sun
I have had some familiarity over the years with several nonprofit institutions that have made great strides in transparency—at least on the surface. They’ve done a thorough job of reporting on results and complying with the letter of the law on public disclosures. Yet, in spite of these trappings of transparency, I’ve found myself at times questioning the substance or “realness” of their transparency.
My hesitation is a product of observing the organizations at work. For example, I’ve seen some of these organizations’ boards operating in pro-forma, rubber-stamp fashion, instead of engaging in open, authentic, probing discussion and deliberation. I’ve seen the executive director and a few members of the board make all the tough decisions, with little or no input from or explanation to staff and other board members. And I’ve seen a lack of openness and candor in day-to-day operations—such as how executives communicate to other managers and the rest of the staff—which makes me question how heartfelt, how ingrained transparency is in the organization’s culture. My strong suspicion is that their “transparency” is driven by a desire to have their operating officer, lawyers, and marketing staff check off a set of boxes rather than a conviction to adhere to deeply held values and principles.
This tension is most visible when a very difficult issue confronts a board, executive leadership, a senior manager, or a staff member—for this is where principles are tested. Do they stay true to mission? Do they live by their core beliefs?
Let me share some real-life examples and ask you to recall times you may have seen similar versions of these “innocent” scenarios:
- A board member and the head of the organization clash hard over differences of opinion. The board member resigns in frustration. The rest of the board and management team hear only that the board member’s resignation is due to an increasing workload.
- A capital campaign is running materially behind target. When the board asks for a status update, management’s full answer to the board (and, by extension, to other key stakeholders) is, “It’s ok.”
- At every board meeting, the founder of the organization tells an evocative story about how the organization’s services are helping those it serves. When the board asks for results on the organization’s overall and collective impact, the founder can’t present any substantive information, beyond individual anecdotes, to illustrate that the organization is making a difference for those it serves.
- An organization reports on the number of youth its programs “touch” each year, giving the impression it serves 5,000 youth each year. The organization does not have the ability to say which youth actually engaged in which programs, for how long, and to what benefit. When the numbers are probed, it turns out that the organization serves fewer than 1,000 youth in a meaningful way.
To be sure, these are relatively mild examples of transparency gaps. To add urgency to my point, let me offer some extreme examples of how we are affected every day by a blatant lack of transparency even among organizations that may have a transparent veneer:
- A leader in a religious order consciously hides the transgressions of a minister or priest who has sexually molested a child.
- Prosecutors, judges, and political party leaders in a community look the other way for years as corruption builds in its systems.
- An urban public school intentionally tries to inflate its test scores by arranging to transfer out its poorest-performing students.
- A pharmaceutical company delays a recall of a top-selling medication when in-house studies indicate safety concerns for patients.
- A car manufacturer fails to notify customers of a serious malfunction known internally to its engineers.
Transparency Means Truth-telling
One of the biggest challenges that I see in the social sector is the fear of confronting the unvarnished truth. How many times have boards of nonprofits allowed the executive director to “run the place” as if the ED is the sole proprietor and the board is along for the ride? How often would just one question that probed a little deeper, pressed a little harder, or called out opaque answers stimulate the organization to confront the real issues? As board members, executives, and staff, we too often want to keep everything positive and moving forward. We don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. We’re afraid to “rock the boat.” It’s much easier to ignore the problems lingering, maybe even stalking us, just under the surface of our organization’s operation. The truth is, it takes great courage to lead. Great leaders make the courageous decision in the most difficult and trying times—when their core values are tested. This is when you find out what is real and what has been pretense.
At Venture Philanthropy Partners, we made plenty of mistakes as we navigated our way into the world of philanthropy and the social sector. But we were not (and still aren’t) afraid to acknowledge our mistakes or recognize areas where we needed to improve. Carol Thompson Cole, VPP’s President and CEO, has commissioned two effectiveness assessments on VPP’s work. While the findings were affirming in aggregate, there was also tough feedback that was hard to hear because it told us where we didn’t do so well and needed to be better. The truth hurts, as the saying goes. But don’t we have to dig for the truth and ferret out the facts as to what is (and, equally important, is not) working so we know how to improve?
Having run organizations, I’m also quick to say that we can’t make every aspect of what we do the target of open-source scrutiny. Don’t get me wrong; I am biased toward sharing more rather than less information and have been accused throughout my professional and philanthropic careers of “over-sharing” with boards, clients, and team. But I believe that transparency has to be applied with discernment, reasonableness, and common sense. The phrase “First, do no harm” may be a good guideline to determine whether transparency about an issue will cause unwarranted, irreparable damage to others.
Transparency for Effectiveness, Not Punishment
As the transparency revolution accelerates in our sector, we must not allow skin-deep, compliance-driven transparency to become an acceptable substitute for values-driven, culturally ingrained efforts. One way to convince nonprofits to turn toward deeper transparency is to make transparency less scary. Today, transparency is not used enough as a tool for helping organizations to learn, improve, and adapt—to hold themselves accountable to themselves first! Far more frequently, it’s used to find fault and even punish.
Isn’t this the risk we face with the way transparency is being used in the field of education? To what extent are we using new information on educational outcomes to help students grow and develop, to inform and improve the teacher and school? Are we more apt to use the information to punish the student, teacher, and school?
Transparency is inevitable. New tools and often-well-deserved suspicion of our key societal institutions make that so. But transparency for transparency’s sake—or for punishment’s sake—is ineffective and even counterproductive. We must use our society’s focus on transparency to encourage a broader ethic and culture within the social sector that will build and reward true transparency. And just as we want to encourage organizations to be mission-driven and to “manage to outcomes,” we want to encourage their being open and transparent for their own effectiveness—so they can do the very best they can for those they serve.
I’m looking for thoughtful transparency that is deeply grounded in an enlightened, long-term view of our obligations to our stakeholders, our neighbors, and our fellow global citizens. That’s the kind of transparency that restores trust in societal institutions. Whether on Wall Street or Main Street, for-profit or nonprofit, that’s the kind of transparency that helps us all make wiser decisions. That’s the kind of transparency that inspires and enables greater impact across business, government, and the social sectors.
- Mario Morino
Finding Her Path to Social Change: Adri Smith and YouReach
Some students travel during the summer, some get summer jobs, others just hang out by the pool. Adri Smith spent her summer leading a literacy workshop for 8-10 year olds in Washington, DC., through a nonprofit organization, YouReach, that she founded.
All before her 18th birthday.
Smith—daughter of VPP Investors Gabriela Smith and Doug Smith—said she has always wanted to give back to her community. She volunteered in community service projects throughout middle school and high school, but wanted to do more. She had big ideas, but didn’t know where to take them. A VPP event inspired her to create YouReach.
Adri Smith, second from top left, and the kids of YouReach
“A couple years ago there was a VPP family event and the guest speaker was the founder of TOMS Shoes,” said Smith, referring to the social entrepreneur whose company donates a pair of shoes for every one bought. “His speech really inspired me to take the ideas that I’ve had for a long time and actually turn them into action.”
After this introduction to social entrepreneurship, she decided to look into creating her own nonprofit. Because Smith’s mother, Gabriela, is from Argentina, she always felt a connection to the Hispanic community. Smith combined her passion for reading and writing with her family roots and started YouReach with some legal help from VPP Board Member Bob Boisture.
“I’d always wanted to do something, but I didn’t know how to get started,” said Smith. “Ultimately, I decided, that making YouReach a nonprofit would give me the independence and ability to make decisions that I wanted to with my vision.”
At the daily YouReach sessions, the kids completed writings assignments in journals given to them specifically for the program. Some excerpts from these journals are featured in the newspaper of the church where YouReach is held, Our Lady Queen of the Americas. Smith says this helps the kids feel more confident about their writing abilities.
One of the YouReach participants with her notebook
Besides providing tutoring in reading and writing, Smith brought in role models from the Hispanic community to inspire the children, including: Rodolfo Guzman, Head Chef of Jaleo Restaurant; Martha Diaz, the Founder and President of the Hip-Hop Association; and Laura Quiroga, the Children’s Director of the GALA Hispanic Theatre. YouReach programming is funded completely by donations, so the workshop was free of charge to all students. Some came to the program—located in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC—from as far as Silver Spring and Wheaton.
Smith said the most rewarding part of the experience was working with the kids.
“They are improving their writing, and they’re excited to come to class, to write in their journals,” she said. “Usually they just are running up to you or hugging you or writing little notes to you. It’s really heartwarming.”
Her students love her too. The conclusion of the program was a celebration where the kids were allowed to read some of their work. One chose to read a piece about her hero. Not surprisingly, it was Smith herself.
For this school year, YouReach will meet every Saturday, alternating between regular programming and tutoring sessions. Smith will take the children on occasional field trips, the first of which will be a visit to meet Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and tour the Supreme Court. In the future, Smith hopes to have older students do job shadowing, as she herself learned about organizational structure and the importance of education through internships at the W. O’Neil Foundation and Teach for America.
Smith said her biggest challenge with YouReach has been her age. She sees a lot of initiative in her peers to make the world a better place and hopes their youth will not deter them. Ultimately, she said, when people follow their passions, age will not stand in the way.
“I’ve found that once the programs started, people were really supportive and encouraged my work,” she said. “A lot of the kids actually thought I was like 30 years old.”
For more information on YouReach, visit its website.
Spotlight on Leaders: Susan Schaeffler and Allison Fansler
After spending nine years in the classroom, Susan Schaeffler realized she needed to do more for the kids she was serving.
“I didn’t feel like I was doing enough for my kids to get them where they needed to be,” said Schaeffler. “I was trying to do things like extend my class’ school day and offer afterschool programming for students…and it was very difficult to do within the school system. I came to the realization that there must be a better way to set up public education.”
Susan Schaeffer
Starting her career in Teach for America in Baltimore, Schaeffler turned to the KIPP network of schools as her next career step in education. She became an inaugural KIPP Fisher Fellow, which trains future KIPP school leaders, and hit the ground running, opening DC’s first KIPP school in 2001.
KIPP DC: KEY Academy started with about 80 kids in a church basement and quickly grew to become the highest performing middle school in DC.
“At that time, I was really not thinking much beyond ‘If I could pull this off for a year I’d be really proud of myself,’” said Schaeffler, now KIPP DC’s Chief Executive Officer. “We were able to get the school up and running and had a great first year. Luckily we had a great second year and a great third year and then…I was able to start to look beyond just my school.”
Now the KIPP DC network has eight schools. VPP recently entered into an investment agreement with the nonprofit, which will support Schaeffler and KIPP DC’s other leaders’ ambition to double the number of students it serves by 2013. It was also selected as a part of VPP’s youthCONNECT initiative, which will help support the “KIPP through College” program that helps ensure that each KIPP student makes it to and through college.
Allison Fansler
This scale and expansion is where Allison Fansler, KIPP DC’s President and Chief Operating Officer, comes in.
“We are most focused right now on [our] plan to grow to ten schools and grow out our ‘KIPP through College’ program and Capital Teaching Residency programs,” said Fansler, referring to KIPP DC’s year-long residency that trains effective teachers. “Growing to scale over the next five years and growing with the level of quality we’ve been able to achieve in the past is our highest, long-term goal.”
Fansler has a diverse professional background—although she says it sometimes feels like there is no “pre-KIPP.” She was involved with a Senate campaign in North Carolina, worked for political strategist James Carville, and served in the Department of the Treasury as the special assistant for the Chief of Staff.
Fansler joined KIPP DC four years ago from the KIPP Foundation, where she was Business Operations Manager, training KIPP principals on business and financial operations. In her role at KIPP DC, she handles the business side of things: financial relations, fundraising, communications. With Schaeffler covering the educational part of the organization—overseeing the performance of the academic program by working closely with parents, students and principals—they work together to create a high-performing organization.
“There’s a lot of overlap where we are just trying to make sure that the two sides of the house are working well together,” said Fansler. “There’s a very fluid stream of work between school-based staff…and business operations.”
VPP is helping KIPP DC increase its visibility and strengthen communications with community stakeholders, said Fansler, with the ultimate goal of increasing support. Both she and Schaeffler say that they have focused heavily on results and have not had the chance to get the word out as much as they would like.
“One of the reasons we have had the success we’ve had to date is because we focused on results first and maybe, almost to a fault, getting the word out second,” said Fansler. “We’ve certainly erred on the side of making sure that what we do is done really, really well.”
Their experience with KIPP DC has taught Schaeffler and Fansler the importance of a focus on maintaining outcomes and sustainable growth. They advise young leaders attempting to make their mark on the nonprofit sector to ensure their organizations are stable and well managed before considering scaling up.
“It doesn’t get any easier as it gets bigger,” said Fansler. “If you can’t manage what you’ve got, then don’t try to manage anything more.”
youthCONNECT Update: Open Competition Process Announced
VPP launched the open competition for its youthCONNECT initiative last month. The announcement spread across the National Capital Region and drew in interested parties to a Bidders Conference and two webinars. VPP will be selecting up to four more network partners to complement its four pre-selected subgrantees and together, they will focus on a collaborative effort to improve educational and employment opportunities for low-income youth, ages 14-24, in the region.
youthCONNECT, funded in part through the Social Innovation Fund, represents a new way of doing business for VPP, aligning public private capital to create a network of high-performing nonprofit organizations. You can read more about the process on VPP’s website.
Expansion Actions
AALEAD Announces Headquarters Move
Thanks to Rick R. Chen, Manager of Development & Communications, for this update.
Asian American LEAD (AALEAD) will be moving its office headquarters at the end of September 2010. The new address will be 2100 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington D.C. 20009.
“We are excited about what this move means for AALEAD,” said Rosetta Lai, Executive Director of AALEAD. “Moving to the new site increases accessibility to students and families, increases opportunities for partnerships within our target communities, and ensures critical impact with legislators, community leaders, and funders.”
AALEAD's New Building
AALEAD has been proactively monitoring the shifting demographics of its communities over several years. The move will better align the organization with the evolving needs of the population they serve.
AALEAD plans to begin operating at its new site by October 1, 2010. During the transition there will be no disruption of services and support offered to students, schools and the communities. In the interim, its headquarters remain at 1323 Girard Street, NW, Washington D.C., 20009.
KIPP DC Welcomes Grow Academy Early Childhood School!
Thanks to Anna Fodor, Communications & Marketing, for this update.
KIPP DC is excited to announce the opening of its eighth school, KIPP DC: Grow Academy early childhood school. Grow Academy, which is located at the KIPP DC: Shaw Campus in the Shaw/Petworth neighborhood, currently serves students in Pre-Ki
posted by hou777 at 6:13 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home