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 Tell-a-friend! | | 69 Organizations Applied For $125 MillionThe Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) received 69 requests totaling $125 million during the first-ever round of Social Innovation Fund (SIF) applications, which has a federal allocation of $50 million. Paul Carttar, director of the Social Innovation Fund, said the fund is best on “simple but compelling beliefs” that the best solutions reside in communities; rewarding demonstrated results that stimulate innovation and attract capital; collaboration across parties and the sector are essential because problems cannot be tackled in isolation; and the federal government should serve as a catalyst for robust decision making by any funder seeking high impact. The applications received by April were balanced among three priorities of economic opportunity, youth development, and school support and healthy futures, according to Marta Urquilla, the corporation’s senior advisor for social innovation. Some 260 organizations collaborated on the 69 applications, including foundations, universities, nonprofits, private businesses and local governments. Applications were received from groups in 25 states and Washington, D.C., she said.
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| | Social Entrepreneurs …
6 qualities of successful social entrepreneurs So, what makes a successful social entrepreneur? In his book “How to Change the World,” David Bornstein disputes the common assumption that highly successful entrepreneurs are more confident and persistent than most others. Instead, he found that what distinguishes successful social entrepreneurs is the quality of their motivation; they were the ones who were most determined to achieve a long-term goal that was deeply meaningful to them. With this, he sets out six qualities of highly successful social entrepreneurs.: - Willingness to self-correct. Inclination to self-correct stems from the attachment to a goal rather than to a particular approach or plan.
- Willingness to share credit. A willingness to share credit lies along the “critical path” to success, because the more credit entrepreneurs share the more people will want to help them.
- Willingness to break free of established structures. By doing this, entrepreneurs can gain the freedom to act and the distance to see beyond orthodoxy in their fields.
- Willingness to cross disciplinary boundaries. Independence from established structures not only helps social entrepreneurs break free of prevailing assumptions but also gives them latitude to combine resources in new ways.
- Willingness to work quietly. Many social entrepreneurs spend decades steadily advancing their ideas.
- Strong ethical impetus. At some moment in their lives, social entrepreneurs get it into their heads that it is up to them to solve a particular problem.
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| Management ...
Learning from performance measurementsEvaluating the performance of any component of an organization is important, but new means of measurement can offer a more sophisticated assessment, just as they can cause unnecessary complications. Speaking at Blackbaud’s Conference for Nonprofits in Charleston, S.C., Alan Eager of Blackbaud and Christine Williams and Juliet Agyare of Conservation International recounted how the group implemented a performance strategy using balanced scorecards. It was balanced in the sense that they seek to end over-reliance on financial-performance indicators, with no measurement of other factors or poor alignment with mission. The organization’s analytical needs included unrestricted revenue, comparison of revenue, multi-dimensional reports, and information about giving club, lapsed, reaction and retention and major gifts. The organization learned the following: - Hardware and software requirements. Buy the best server you can afford. Do not skimp on processor memory.
- IT and development co-ordination. A strong relationship is vital.
- Data structure and cleanliness. Have a clean database. Review data structure. Run a clean-up project. Garbage-in-garbage-out will be apparent.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These must be clearly defined. Involve key decision makers. Know what analysis is being provided. Hold brainstorming sessions.
- Project schedule. This must be reasonable. It is not a short-term or simple project.
- Scorecards. They must be tested and validated.
- Maintaining and revising scorecards. This must be decided.
- Fundraising analysis. Make those scorecards a primary analytical tool for this.
| Legal …
Protecting against abuse of the vulnerable
Because many nonprofits deal with what can be called vulnerable populations, they must be extremely careful about potential abuse of those people who are receiving services from the nonprofit. In their book “Exposed: A Legal Field Guide for Nonprofit Executives” published by the Nonprofit Management Risk Center, Melanie Lockwood Herman and Mark E. Chopko offer advice about care of vulnerable people. They note that five principles emerged from the Conference of Catholic Bishops but that those principles form a useful basis upon which to make policy, even though there are many variations and even more details. The five principles are: - Respond promptly to all allegations of abuse where there is a reasonable belief that abuse has occurred.
- If such an allegation is supported by sufficient evidence, relieve the alleged offender promptly of ministerial duties and refer them for appropriate medical evaluation and intervention.
- Comply with the obligations of the civil law as regards reporting of the incident and cooperating with the investigation.
- Reach out to the victims and their families and communicate sincere commitment to their spiritual and emotional well-being.
- Within the confines of respect for privacy of the individuals involved, deal as openly as possible with members of the community.
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