LeapofReason.org provides free access to a suite of materials, including articles, speeches, videos, guides, and other tools, which build on and augment Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity, a book written by Venture Philanthropy Partners Chairman Mario Morino in partnership with McKinsey & Company and a dozen other social-sector experts and practitioners. You can also download David Hunter’s new book, Working Hard—and Working Well. The website is created and hosted by Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP), a philanthropic investment organization that helps leaders build strong, high-performing nonprofit institutions. Go to: http://www.vppartners.org/leapofreason/overview
Publication of the Week -- Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation by Joseph S. Wholey, Harry P. Hatry and Kathryn E. Newcomer
From the publisher: The third edition of Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation offers managers, analysts, consultants, and educators in government, nonprofit, and private institutions a valuable resource that outlines efficient and economical methods for assessing program results and identifying ways to improve program performance. This latest edition has been thoroughly revised. It reflects the evolving nature of the field, while maintaining its value as a guide to the foundational skills needed for evaluation Many new chapters have been prepared for this edition, including chapters on logic modeling and on evaluation applications for small nonprofit organizations. The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation is a comprehensive resource on evaluation, covering both in-depth program evaluations and performance monitoring. It presents evaluation methods that will be useful at all levels of government and in nonprofit organizations.
Click to preview this book on Amazon.com
Trend of the Week -- Program-Related Investing Trends
Program-related investments (PRIs) are gaining attention
from foundations for their potential to meet charitable purposes while
generating financial returns, but their use remains limited, a new study by the
Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy finds. The report, which
was sponsored by Mission Throttle, analyzes key trends in foundations’ use of
program-related investing between 2000 and 2010. Key findings include:
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Housing, community development and education were the program areas that received both the highest total dollar amounts and the largest number of PRIs made by foundations between 2000 and 2010. Non-traditional program areas such as environment, health and arts and culture were also likely to receive PRI support during that period.
- More than half of all PRIs were loans, but foundations have increased the use of equity investments and debt other than loans, such as loan guarantees or loan funds.
- Measuring success is challenging. Foundations generally define success in two ways—programmatic or social success and financial or investment success—and some deem a PRI successful even if it did not produce a positive financial return on the investment so long as it produced the desired social outcome. Achieving success requires planning, new team structures, traditional financial investment skills and social metrics.
Resource of the Week –
Ten Nonprofit Funding Models
While the “for profit” world has many universally known
business models, the nonprofit arena is lacking common plans. In this study, Landes-Foster, Kim and
Christiansen take a look at developing a series of ten funding models based on
research of 144 large nonprofits with significant growth year over year. The intent was not to help choose which model
each organization should use, but to inform and educate. They discuss the
important distinction between business models and funding models and posit that
while business models are generally developed and understood, especially by the
for-profit sector, funding models have never been clearly articulated. By using
these three parameters: source of funds, type of decision makers and the
motivation of the decision makers, the authors came up with ten funding models
grouped into categories defined by dominant type of funder (single funder, many
individuals, government, corporations and a mix). They include a few questions with each model
to help determine which is the best fit for an organization. Go to:
Tech Tip of the Week -- Keep a file on the Office 2007/2010
Recent Documents List
An excellent new feature in Office 2007/2010 which works in
Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access, is the ability to keep or “pin” a file in
the Recent Documents list, here’s how:
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In 2007 click the Microsoft Office button or in 2010 click the File Tab and then click Recent
- Click the pin icon beside the document you want to keep on the list
- The pin button changes to a push pin viewed from the top
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