Collective Impact

Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Substantially greater progress could be made in alleviating many of our most serious and complex social problems if nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public were brought together around a common agenda to create collective impact. Published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011

Allocating Resources in a Time of Scarcity

In response to declining investment returns, many foundations are implementing across-the-board cuts for grantees. This 2002 article argues, that there is a better approach. Particularly in tough times foundations should concentrate their giving in those areas in which their expertise, relationships, and grantees create the greatest value. It also makes the case that foundation-level, rather than grant-level, evaluation is the way to identify those areas with the greatest potential for social impact

Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work

Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Substantially greater progress could be made in alleviating many of our most serious and complex social problems if nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public were brought together around a common agenda to create collective impact. Published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011

Changing the Game

Companies today understand that corporate social responsibility (CSR) forms an inextricable part of their reputations and brand identities. They spend ever-increasing amounts of corporate resources on improving the social, human, and environmental conditions under which companies operate. Yet the world's problems seem as intractable as ever, and very few global companies have managed to rise above the public relations din to truly distinguish themselves through their CSR activities. One of the primary reasons CSR has not yet significantly improved society is that the nonprofit and business sectors are for the most part still stuck in their old stereotypical roles. By ceding responsibility for solving social problems to nonprofits, companies have forsaken their ability to intervene directly in healing the world's woes. As a result, some of the most sophisticated and powerful organizations in the world remain on the sidelines of social progress. Companies that get into the game and play to win will reap disproportionate social impact, economic rewards, and reputational benefits

Samuel Noah Kramer: 10-06-1981

Samuel Noah Kramer was a Sumerian history and language expert and the author of over 25 books and 150 articles on Sumer. He begins the interview by reading a piece of Sumerian literature and continues by discussing what Sumerian literature is about, the time period it was written in, and the types of literature that the Sumerians wrote. He discusses how he got into cuneiform, the system of writing developed by the Sumerians, and talks about coming to the United States as a child. Kramer concludes the interview by discussing how he became an archaeologist.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/writers_videos/1020/thumbnail.jp

Strengthening Community Foundations - Redefining the Opportunities

Commissioned by the Council on Foundations and released in October 2003, this white paper details the findings and the implications of our study of costs and revenues at nine community foundations. Offering a new perspective for community foundation sustainability, the white paper proposes that community foundations examine their strategy and operations on a product-by-product basis, taking into account their mission-driven priorities, internal costs, customer preferences and the competing donor alternatives for each type of product or service they offer

Experiences with the Streptococcus mutans in Lakota Sioux (SMILeS) Study: Risk Factors for Caries in American Indian Children 0-3 Years

Severe Early Childhood Caries (S-ECC) is a terribly aggressive and devastating disease that is all too common in lower socio-economic children, but none more so that what is encountered in American Indian Tribes. Nationwide, approximately 27% of 2-5 year olds have decay while 62% percent of American Indian/Alaska Native children in the same age group have a history of decay (IHS 2010, NHANES 1999-2002). We have conducted a study of children from birth to 36 months of age on Pine Reservation to gain a better understanding of the variables that come into play in the development of this disease, from transmission and acquisition of Streptococcus mutans genotypes from mother to child to multiple dietary and behavioral components. This article describes how we established a direct partnership with the Tribe and the many opportunities and challenges we faced in performing this 5-year field study

Leading Boldly: Foundations Can Move Past Traditional Approaches to Create Social Change Through Imaginative -- Even Controversial -- Leadership

Rarely do foundations publicly communicate their dissatisfaction with their grantees, withhold funds, or use tactics that carry the risks of creating ill will. Yet extraordinary results can be achieved if foundations were more imaginative, visible, and controversial. Three foundations shocked the city of Pittsburgh in 2002 by abruptly suspending their funding to local public schools. The foundations announced their decision in a news conference that attracted both local and national coverage -- a sharp departure from their usual approach of working quietly behind the scenes. Foundation executives explained that they had completely lost confidence in the ability of the local school board to run the district. Their action yielded a community-wide process that led to real change. Here's how foundations can exercise Adaptive Leadership without misusing authority