A Compass in the Woods: Learning Through Grantmaking to Improve Impact

The field of philanthropy is under increasing pressure to produce – and be able to demonstrate – greater impact for its investments. A growing number of foundations are moving away from the traditional responsive banker model to becoming more thoughtful and engaged partners with their grantees in the business of producing outcomes. In the process, they are placing bigger bets on larger, more strategic programs and initiatives.  What the field is striving to do now is to ensure that this evolution is based on validated theory, not wishful thinking or shots in the dark. The larger the investment, the more skilled foundations must become at managing risk – making informed decisions, tracking progress, adjusting action and learning – throughout the life of a program, so that foreseeable and unforeseeable changes do not torpedo an otherwise worthy collective effort. The traditional grant?to?evaluation?to?adjustment cycle is very long. Because many traditional grantmaking practices are proving to be too slow to adapt, these foundations are striving to better integrate real?time evaluation and learning into their operations in order to become more adaptive; more innovative; more impactful.We undertook this research project to inform how the tools and practices that support Emergent   Learning (described in the next section) can best help foundations and their communities – grantees, intermediaries and other stakeholders – improve the way they learn in complex programs and initiatives

Self-Configuring Socio-Technical Systems: Redesign at Runtime

Modern information systems are becoming more and more socio-technical systems, namely systems composed of human (social) agents and software (technical) systems operating together in a common environment. The structure of such systems has to evolve dynamically in response to the changes of the environment. When new requirements are introduced, when an actor leaves the system or when a new actor comes, the socio-technical structure needs to be redesigned and revised. In this paper, an approach to dynamic reconfiguration of a socio-technical system structure in response to internal or external changes is proposed. The approach is based on planning techniques for generating possible alternative configurations, and local strategies for their evaluation. The reconfiguration mechanism is presented, which makes the socio-technical system self-configuring, and the approach is discussed and analyzed on a simple case study

The Art of Knowledge Exchange: A Results-Focused Planning Guide for Development Practitioners

Designing and implementing knowledge exchange initiatives can be a big undertaking. This guide takes the guesswork out of the process by breaking it down into simple steps and providing tools to help you play a more effective role as knowledge connector and learning facilitator

Victorian Aboriginal economic strategy 2013-2020

The Victorian Aboriginal Economic Strategy was launched by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs on 6 December 2013. The Strategy leverages the strengths of Aboriginal Victorians and the State economy to build opportunity and economic prosperity and deliver better life outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians. Economic participation and development are central to the Government\u27s reform agenda for closing the gap, the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework 2013–2018. The Strategy extends from education, to more job opportunities with career pathways, and growing Aboriginal business enterprise and investment. Actions under the Strategy build on efforts across the Victorian Government and leverage private sector partners, to deliver strong outcomes in education, training employment and business enterprise. A Victorian Aboriginal Economic Board will be established in 2014 to support delivery of the Strategy, cut through red tape and build strategic connections with industries and the finance sector. The development of the Strategy has been informed by Ministerial Roundtables and targeted consultations held during 2013, discussions at the Victorian Aboriginal Economic Development Summit hosted in 2012 and the work of the Victorian Aboriginal Economic Development Group. The Strategy is available at the following links: Victorian Aboriginal Economic Strategy 2013 - 2020 (Word 3.51 MB) Victorian Aboriginal Economic Strategy 2013 - 2020 (PDF 4 MB

Taking action on child poverty : consultation paper

This consultation document presents the Welsh Assembly Government’s proposals for taking action on child poverty. This includes making new legislation to introduce a duty on public agencies in respect of child poverty, to provide free childcare places and other early years’ services in specific places, to match the guidance under which the Cymorth grant is provided and to introduce a strategy to support vulnerable children. The document also includes a voluntary draft Joint Agreement on child poverty which sets out the commitment of public agencies to helping the Welsh Assembly Government with its child poverty objectives

The Potential for Public-Private Partnerships: Philanthropic Leaders Considering Housing as a Platform

Explores foundation leaders' approaches to housing as a platform for layering programs and services to improve quality of life, views on funding partnerships with the federal government, and suggestions for targeted collaborations. Includes case studies

New Labour, new environment? An analysis of the labour government's policy on climate change and biodiversity loss

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Hard Lessons about Philanthropy & Community Change from the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative

Between 1996 and 2006, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation invested over $20 million in the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative (NII), an ambitious effort to help three neighborhoods in the Bay Area reduce poverty and develop new leaders, better services, more capable organizations, and stronger connections to resources. On some counts NII succeeded, and on others it struggled mightily. In the end, despite some important accomplishments, NII did not fulfill its participants' hopes and expectations for broad, deep, and sustainable community change. In those accomplishments and shortcomings, and in the strategies that produced them, however, lies a story whose relevance exceeds the boundaries of a single initiative. Our goal is to examine this story in the context of other foundation sponsored initiatives to see if it can help philanthropy support community change and other types of long-term, community-based initiatives more effectively.As we began to review materials and conduct interviews, we learned of NII's accomplishments in each neighborhood, including new organizations incubated, new services stimulated, and new leaders helped to emerge. We also quickly discovered multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives on NII's design, implementation, and outcomes that were hard to reconcile. Some of this Rashomon effect is to be expected in a complex, long-term community change initiative that evolves over time with changing players. Some can also be attributed to the different dynamics and trajectories in each of the three sites.We have tried to describe all points of view as accurately as possible without favoring any one perspective. Moreover, we have tried to look beyond the lessons drawn exclusively from NII and to position all of these varied opinions within a broader field-wide perspective, wherever possible.The frustrations of NII's participants and sponsors are mirrored in many other foundations' major initiatives. Indeed, our reviewers -- who have been involved in many such initiatives as funders, evaluators, technical assistance providers, and intermediaries -- all underscored how familiar they were with the challenges and pitfalls described here, both those related specifically to community change efforts and those pertinent to other initiatives. Because the opportunity to discuss the frustrations candidly has been limited, however, they often are relegated to concerns expressed sotto voce. So it was particularly important throughout the review to solicit from our interviewees ideas or suggestions for improving their work together. We offer these along with our own observations as a way to stimulate further reflection and debate, because we believe that philanthropy has an important role to play in improving outcomes for poor communities and their residents. Few foundations have been willing to contribute to this level of honest and sometimes painful public dialogue. But by commissioning this retrospective analysis, the Hewlett Foundation demonstrates a desire to help the field learn and move forward, and we applaud that

Sustainable development : fourth annual assessment of progress by the Scottish Government

SDC Scotland’s annual assessment is based on a review of government policy across a range of topics from economy and energy to education, health, waste and biodiversity. The conclusions and recommendations are also based on discussions with expert groups in each policy area, government civil servants and a stakeholder survey.Publisher PD