Beyond ‘X Number Served’
To cure the social sector’s metric monomania, we must get comfortable with complexity.
To cure the social sector’s metric monomania, we must get comfortable with complexity.
By investing in a talent pipeline of diverse public interest technologists, government and philanthropy can advance equity, expand opportunity, and make democracy work for the people.
Recent rapid growth in climate philanthropy risks redundancy, waste, and friendly fire.
Four data-driven, inclusive human resource systems that can help quickly scaling nonprofits maintain their efficiency, values, and performance.
Mergers among nonprofits don’t have to be distress-oriented deals of survival. Rather, M&A can offer some compelling opportunities that are unique to nonprofits.
Since 1970, more than 200,000 nonprofits have opened in the U.S., but only 144 have reached $50 million in annual revenue. They got big by doing two things: They raised the bulk of their money from a single type of funder. And just as importantly, these nonprofits created professional organizations that were tailored to the needs of their primary funding sources.
A decade of applying the collective impact approach to address social problems has taught us that equity is central to the work.
How do innovations move from the edges to the core of what an organization does? For maximum impact, innovations must cease to be innovative and become institutionalized and normalized.
Impact evaluations are an important tool for learning about effective solutions to social problems, but they are a good investment only in the right circumstances.
Scaling requires not only fidelity to core processes and programs, but also constant adjustments to local needs and resources.