Aggregating Impact: A Funder's Guide to Mission Investment Intermediaries

This report provides a guide to mission investment intermediaries, organizations that collect capital from multiple sources and reinvest it in people and enterprises, whether nonprofit or for-profit, that deliver both social impact and financial returns. A growing number of foundations and other funders are beginning to use such intermediaries versus making mission investments directly. This is due to a number of advantages that intermediaries can provide, such as ease of investment, reduced risk, lower transaction costs, specialized expertise, performance reporting, and an expanded deal flow. Yet research disclosed that many funders are unaware of the wide range of mission investment intermediaries that are available and of the advantages they can offer. The authors provide an overview of mission investment intermediaries and how foundations use them, the benefits and challenges of investing in intermediaries, and an analysis of available intermediaries that address economic development, housing and the environment

The Power of Strategic Mission Investing

A growing number of foundations are offering low-interest loans, buying into green business ventures, and investing in other asset classes to advance their missions. Yet most mission investing remains haphazard and inconsequential. To bring about real change, foundations need to take a fundamentally different approach, making strategic mission investments that complement their grantmaking. Authors Mark Kramer and Sarah Cooch talk about strategic mission investing in the Fall 2007 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review

Compounding Impact: Mission Investing by U.S. Foundations

This recently published report provides the first comprehensive analysis of mission investing by U.S. foundations. The study, funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, analyzes the mission investment activity of 92 U.S. foundations, which have made a combined total of $2.3 billion of mission investments. Mission investing is a more specific type of social investing, and represents the use of financial investments as tools to achieve a foundation's mission. Through interviews with foundations and extensive data collection, FSG assembled a rich picture of current and historical mission investment activity stretching back almost 40 years. The study found that the number of foundations engaged in mission investing has doubled in recent years, and the amount of funds committed annually has tripled. Although most mission investments are still low-interest loans, foundations are increasingly using equity and other investments that generate market-rate returns. Surprisingly, most of the growth has been driven by smaller foundations with assets under$200 million

When Everything Matters, Nothing Matters: Minnesota\u27s Unprincipled Approach for Determining Domicile in Tax Disputes, and a Path Forward

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Investing for Impact - Managing and Measuring Proactive Social Investments

This 2006 study, commissioned by the Shell Foundation, and prepared by FSG, sees strong growth and opportunity in the nascent field of proactive social investment (PSI). In a typical PSI, a socially-responsible corporation or a charitable foundation uses its capital to invest in new enterprises that can play a critical role in alleviating a societal problem. Although still a very small share of investments, the report estimates that PSIs total nearly US$15 billion, and are attracting increasing interest among foundations and corporations. The study, based on in-depth interviews with 36 pioneers in social investment from the US and Europe, validates the belief that PSIs can simultaneously deliver measurable social benefits and attractive rates of return

WATERFOWL POPULATION STATUS, 1999

This report summarizes the most recent information on the status of North American duck populations to facilitate development of harvest regulations in the U.S. The results in this report differ from those published in the earlier •Trends in Duck Breeding Populations, 1955-99. Because of recent changes, tables from the Trend Report, not normally included in the Status Report, will be included this year. The 1999 estimate for total ducks in the traditional survey area was 43.4 million birds, the largest population size estimated since operational surveys began in 1955. This is an increase (P\u3c0.01) of 11% over that of 1998, and 32% higher (P\u3c0.01) than the 1955-98 average. Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) abundance was 10.8 million, the second largest population size estimated. This is an increase of 12% (P=0.01) over last year and 47% (P\u3c0.01) greater than the long-term average. Blue-winged teal (Anas discors) abundance was 7.1 million, an all-time high, and 65% greater than the long-term average (P\u3c0.01). Northern pintail (Anas acuta), scaup (Aythya marila and Aythya affinis), green-winged teal (Anas crecca), and northern shoveler (Anas clypeata) numbers increased from 1998 estimates, while gadwall (Anas strepera) decreased (P\u3c0.04). Gadwall, green-winged teal, northern shoveler, redheads (Aythya americana), and canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria) were above their respective long-term averages (P\u3c0.05), while pintails and scaup remained below their long-term averages (P\u3c0.01). American wigeon (Anas americana) numbers were unchanged from last year or from long-term average. May habitat conditions in the traditional survey area were generally good to excellent, except for a few dry areas primarily in southern and central Alberta, Montana, and central Saskatchewan. The number of May ponds in the traditional survey area was 6.7 million, an increase of 46% over 1998 and 37% above the long-term average (P\u3c0.01). In the eastern areas of Canada and the U.S. (strata 51-56 and 62), the total number of ducks (1.2 million) remained unchanged from last year and the 1995-98 average (P\u3c0.10). Numbers of individual species in the east were similar to those of last year (P • 0.10), except for goldeneye (Bucephala clangula and B. islandica), which were 196% greater than 1998 levels, and scaup, which were 93% below 1998 levels. Goldeneye were above their 1995-98 average, while blue-winged teal and scaup were below (P\u3c0.03). Habitats in the east were somewhat drier than last year, and conditions were overall not as favorable for waterfowl production. The estimate of the total-duck fall-flight index is105 million birds, compared to 84 million last year. The fall flight is predicted to include 13.6 million mallards, 16% greater (P\u3c0.01) than the estimate of 11.8 million in 1998

Population dynamics

Increases or decreases in the size of populations over space and time are, arguably, the motivation for much of pure and applied ecological research. The fundamental model for the dynamics of any population is straightforward: the net change over time in the abundance of some population is the simple difference between the number of additions (individuals entering the population) minus the number of subtractions (individuals leaving the population). Of course, the precise nature of the pattern and process of these additions and subtractions is often complex, and population biology is often replete with fairly dense mathematical representations of both processes. While there is no doubt that analysis of such abstract descriptions of populations has been of considerable value in advancing our, there has often existed a palpable discomfort when the ‘beautiful math’ is faced with the often ‘ugly realities’ of empirical data. In some cases, this attempted merger is abandoned altogether, because of the paucity of ‘good empirical data’ with which the theoretician can modify and evaluate more conceptually–based models. In some cases, the lack of ‘data’ is more accurately represented as a lack of robust estimates of one or more parameters. It is in this arena that methods developed to analyze multiple encounter data from individually marked organisms has seen perhaps the greatest advances. These methods have rapidly evolved to facilitate not only estimation of one or more vital rates, critical to population modeling and analysis, but also to allow for direct estimation of both the dynamics of populations (e.g., Pradel, 1996), and factors influencing those dynamics (e.g., Nichols et al., 2000). The interconnections between the various vital rates, their estimation, and incorporation into models, was the general subject of our plenary presentation by Hal Caswell (Caswell & Fujiwara, 2004). Caswell notes that although interest has traditionally focused on estimation of survival rate (arguably, use of data from marked individuals has been used for estimation of survival more than any other parameter, save perhaps abundance), it is only one of many transitions in the life cycle. Others discussed include transitions between age or size classes, breeding states, and physical locations. The demographic consequences of these transitions can be captured by matrix population models, and such models provide a natural link connecting multi–stage mark–recapture methods and population dynamics. The utility of the matrix approach for both prospective, and retrospective, analysis of variation in the dynamics of populations is well–known; such comparisons of results of prospective and retrospective analysis is fundamental to considerations of conservation management (sensu Caswell, 2000). What is intriguing is the degree to which these methods can be combined, or contrasted, with more direct estimation of one or more measures of the trajectory of a population (e.g., Sandercock & Beissinger, 2002). The five additional papers presented in the population dynamics session clearly reflected these considerations. In particular, the three papers submitted for this volume indicate the various ways in which complex empirical data can be analyzed, and often combined with more classical modeling approaches, to provide more robust insights to the dynamics of the study population. The paper by Francis & Saurola (2004) is an example of rigorous analysis and modeling applied to a large, carefully collected dataset from a long–term study of the biology of the Tawny Owl. Using a combination of live encounters and dead recoveries, the authors were able to separate the relative contributions of various processes (emigration, mortality) on variation in survival rates. These analyses were combined with periodic matrix models to explore comparisons of direct estimation of changes in population size (based on both census and mark–recapture analysis) with model estimates. The utility of combining sources of information into analysis of populations was the explicit subject of the other two papers. Gauthier & Lebreton (2004) draw on a long–term study of an Arctic–breeding Goose population, where both extensive mark–recapture, ring recovery, and census data are available. The primary goal is to use these various sources of information to to evaluate the effect of increased harvests on dynamics of the population. A number of methods are compared; most notably they describe an approach based on the Kalman filter which allows for different sources of information to be used in the same model, that is demographic data (i.e. transition matrix) and census data (i.e. annual survey). They note that one advantage of this approach is that it attempts to minimize both uncertainties associated with the survey and demographic parameters based on the variance of each estimate. The final paper, by Brooks, King and Morgan (Brooks et al., 2004) extends the notion of the combining information in a common model further. They present a Bayesian analysis of joint ring–recovery and census data using a state–space model allowing for the fact that not all members of the population are directly observable. They then impose a Leslie–matrix–based model on the true population counts describing the natural birth–death and age transition processes. Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach (which eliminates the need for some of the standard assumption often invoked in use of a Kalman filter), Brooks and colleagues describe methods to combine information, including potentially relevant covariates that might explain some of the variation, within a larger framework that allows for discrimination (selection) amongst alternative models. We submit that all of the papers presented in this session indicate clearly significant interest in approaches for combining data and modeling approaches. The Bayesian framework appears a natural framework for this effort, since it is able to not only provide a rigorous way to evaluate and integrate multiple sources of information, but provides an explicit mechanism to accommodate various sources of uncertainty about the system. With the advent of numerical approaches to addressing some of the traditionally ‘tricky’ parts of Bayesian inference (e.g., MCMC), and relatively user–friendly software, we suspect that there will be a marked increase in the application of Bayesian inference to the analysis of population dynamics. We believe that the papers presented in this, and other sessions, are harbingers of this trend

A Rural Alternative School and Its Effectiveness for Preventing Dropouts

This article describes a successful alternative school located in northwest Wyoming. Students who attend this school need an atmosphere that is accepting of their differences and allow them to express themselves without fear of ridicule or punishment. These children are looking for a safe, secure place to complete their education, a place where their unique differences are respected. Bear Lodge is one such alternative high school. Students at Bear Lodge share their perspective and provide a living testimony as to the importance of alternative schools in allowing students to meet with academic success and social acceptance. Bear Lodge allows its students to work at their own pace in a caring and noncoercive environment. Here students attend school regularly, follow a standards-based curriculum, form close relationships with their peers and teachers, and know that the staff believe they can be successful in and out of school

The Distribution of Larger Species of Birds Breeding on the Coasts of Foxe Basin and Northern Hudson Bay, Canada

Aerial surveys of large birds on the coasts of Foxe Basin and northern Hudson Bay were carried out in late June and early July in 1979, 1983 and 1984. Greatest numbers of birds were seen along low-lying coasts backed by wet lowland tundra, particularly where these merged into extensive inter-tidal flats. These areas have emerged from the sea only during the past 2000 years. Even in areas of wet lowland tundra, all species except jaegers appeared to be patchy in their distribution, the patches being unrelated to obvious features of the habitat. We suggest that breeding habitat for many species is not completely occupied, at least in normal breeding seasons. We propose that statutory protection be extended to all or parts of Prince Charles and Air Force islands, which support high numbers of several species and are currently unprotected.Key words: arctic birds, coastal breeding, aerial surveys, Foxe Basin, Hudson BayMots clés: oiseaux arctiques, nidification côtière, inventaires aériens, bassin Foxe, baie d'Hudso