Expanding Philanthropy’s Reach

When New York’s F.B. Heron Foundation, a private, grant-making institution, was created, it had a mandate to invest assets and donate 5 percent of returns annually to help low-income people and communities to help themselves.1 The year was 1992, the cusp of one of the greatest economic booms in U.S. history. But as Heron’s asset base swelled, 5 percent for community work began to look insufficient to help the many Americans who were missing out on the boom. In a 1996 meeting, directors realized they were spending too much time reviewing a particular investment manager’s performance and too little time discussing Heron programs. It was time to reevaluate priorities. The foundation’s social mission and tax-exempt status suggested that it should be more than a private investment company using excess cash for charitable purposes. It needed to be different from conventional investment managers. Heron concluded that the 5 percent payout requirement was the narrowest expression of its philanthropic goals. The other 95 percent of assets, the corpus, could give the board the tools it needed for greater social impact. Staff members were encouraged to explore ways in which Heron could engage more of its assets through a combination of grants and mission-related investment strategies.2 The foundation decided to leverage an increasing amount of its resources to pursue its mission and to maximize its impact in low-income communities

The Heron Foundation expands philanthropy's reach

Contrary to the perception of trade-offs between financial return and social impact, the F.B. Heron Foundation demonstrates that it’s possible to achieve competitive returns while incorporating mission-related investments into an overall portfolio and asset allocation.Community development

Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for Institutional Investment With Social and Environmental Benefit

Explores policy options to maximize impact investing opportunities for institutional investors and accelerate the development of impact investing practices and products. Presents case studies of and insights from investors and service providers

Privacy as a Public Good

Privacy is commonly studied as a private good: my personal data is mine to protect and control, and yours is yours. This conception of privacy misses an important component of the policy problem. An individual who is careless with data exposes not only extensive information about herself, but about others as well. The negative externalities imposed on nonconsenting outsiders by such carelessness can be productively studied in terms of welfare economics. If all relevant individuals maximize private benefit, and expect all other relevant individuals to do the same, neoclassical economic theory predicts that society will achieve a suboptimal level of privacy. This prediction holds even if all individuals cherish privacy with the same intensity. As the theoretical literature would have it, the struggle for privacy is destined to become a tragedy. But according to the experimental public-goods literature, there is hope. Like in real life, people in experiments cooperate in groups at rates well above those predicted by neoclassical theory. Groups can be aided in their struggle to produce public goods by institutions, such as communication, framing, or sanction. With these institutions, communities can manage public goods without heavy-handed government intervention. Legal scholarship has not fully engaged this problem in these terms. In this Article, we explain why privacy has aspects of a public good, and we draw lessons from both the theoretical and the empirical literature on public goods to inform the policy discourse on privacy

The Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System: An Assessment of Design, Implementation, and Impact

The FY 1997 National Defense Authorization Act gave the Secretary of Defense authority to establish common personnel policies for DoD intelligence components. Under this authority, DoD began designing the Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS) in 2007. This personnel system was intended to unify the civilian human resources management systems among ten DoD intelligence components. Beyond mere structural and process changes, DCIPS represents an effort to transform the cultures among component agencies. Such transformation requires a thorough and well-executed implementation strategy, as well as a sound system design.Through a multi-method data collection effort, including interviews, colloquia of experts, focus groups, online dialogue, open forums, and secondary research, the National Academy addressed three aspects of DCIPS: (1) The overall soundness of the design; (2) Success of implementation efforts; and (3) Potential impact of DCIPS on career progression and diversity.Key FindingsThe panel recognized the soundness of DCIPS' design, and the urgency of the effort, as well as the need to make certain changes in its planned implementation prior to moving forward. This report provides key recommendations aimed at encouraging greater collaboration among the intelligence components, restoring and building employee trust in DCIPS and, most importantly, strengthening personal accountability in the performance of agency missions

Financial Innovations Roundtable: Developing practical solutions to scale up integrated community development strategies

Essays from experts affiliated with the “think-do” tank , the Financial Innovations Roundtable, housed at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire

Building Jefferson\u27s future

2002 Annual report of Thomas Jefferson University

Unrealized Gains: How Workforce Organizations Can Put Money in the Pockets of Low-Wage Workers

Social policy continues to emphasize the importance of work, but many working families struggle to make ends meet. Work supports can be a critical factor in enabling people to make a successful transition to employment. Packed with tools and resources, Unrealized Gains will help practitioners make use of work supports: laying the groundwork with a financial literacy curriculum, creating income packages, promoting access to work supports through advocacy and keeping graduates on track with a variety of retention strategies. Readers will come away with a concrete plan for addressing their participants economic security

Commonwealth Fund - 2003 Annual Report

Contains mission statement, president's message, program summaries, executive vice president's report, treasurer's report, grants list, financial statements, and lists of board members and staff