“Shifting” To Informational Text: Zeroing In On Academic Language
Beyond the Overhead Myth - sdgrantmakers.org · 1/12/2016 · 2.Lean Impact Principles...
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Beyond the Overhead Myth: How New Data Sources Are Reshaping the Nonprofit Sector San Diego, CA 12 January 2016
Transcript of Beyond the Overhead Myth - sdgrantmakers.org · 1/12/2016 · 2.Lean Impact Principles...
Beyond the Overhead Myth: How New Data Sources Are Reshaping the Nonprofit Sector
San Diego, CA
12 January 2016
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volatile
uncertain ambiguous
complex
vision
understanding agility
clarity
Social change is hard.
Really hard.
the two elephants in the philanthropic room…
E1: Some nonprofits are better than others (they create more social or environmental impact per dollar)
E2: Some donors are better than others (their donations create more social or environmental impact per dollar)
Information about…
ORGANIZATIONS (e.g., Nurse-Family Partnership is currently serving 22,795 babies and their mothers in 40 states across the U.S.)
RESOURCES (e.g., The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation made a 5-year, $10 million grant to Nurse-Family Partnership in 2007)
INTERVENTIONS (e.g., regular nurse visitation for new mothers their babies leads to a .2 point increase in math & reading GPA in grades 1-6)
ISSUES (e.g., 50% of children from at-risk backgrounds are below the basic level for reading and math skills)
“It is a paradox of the world of foundations and donors that they want (1) tight financial controls, (2) elaborate financial reporting, (3) sophisticated measures of outcomes and impact, and (4) more fundraising, while insisting that organizations cut ‘overhead.’ Overhead consists of these items they want so badly!” – Patrick J. Nugent
Illustration Credit: Julian Yu
Me (Preacher)
You (Choir)
Illustration Credit: Julian Yu
“Preaching to the choir actually arms the choir with arguments and elevates the choir’s
discourse.”
There is plenty of blame to go around.
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Solution: We must face this problem head-on.
A nonprofit’s investments in training, planning, evaluation, and internal
systems—investments in itself—are how a nonprofit sustains and improves its impact on
the world.
www.overheadmyth.com
Coverage in 200+ outlets
1. Demonstrate ethical practice and share data about your performance
2. Manage toward results
3. Help educate funders on the real costs of results
D E M O N S T R AT E E T H I C A L P R A C T I C E A N D S H A R E P E R F O R M A N C E D ATA
1. BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountability
2. Independent Sector’s Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice
3. PerformWells’ Performance Management Cycle
WWW.OVERHEADMYTH.COM/RESOURCES
M A N A G E T O W A R D R E S U LT S ( 1 / 2 )
Strive to make a lasting impact.
1. Leap of Reason and The Performance Imperative
2. Lean Impact Principles
3. “Zeroing in on Impact” – SSIR
WWW.OVERHEADMYTH.COM/RESOURCES
M A N A G E T O W A R D R E S U LT S ( 2 / 2 )
Understand your true costs.
1. Nonprofit Finance Fund’s many resources
2. Donors Forum’s Real Talk about Real Cost
3. AICPA’s Audit and Accounting Guide for NPOs
WWW.OVERHEADMYTH.COM/RESOURCES
Engage in a conversation with your donors explaining the Overhead Myth.
H E L P E D U C AT E F U N D E R S O N T H E R E A L C O S T S O F R E S U LT S
www.overheadmyth.com/press
OMB Circular A-122: Cost Principles for NPOs “provide that the Federal Government bear its fair share
of costs except where restricted or prohibited by law
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Summit To End The Overhead Myth: Meeting Report
SUMMIT TO END THE OVERHEAD MYTH
Cornell Club
New York City
January 14, 2014
PARTICIPANTS MEETING REPORT
Prepared by:
InsideNGO
Summit to End the Overhead Myth January 14, 2014 – The Cornell Club, NY—CONFIDENTIAL
Events & Initiatives
Grantmakers (The Early Adopters”)
Watchers & Helpers (“The
Evangelists”)
Grant Receivers (“The Hungry”)
Overhead Summit II
Funding to Support Scale and Results
(Thousands of NGOs)
A YEAR
AGO
Slide Credit: InsideNGO
Events, Initiatives & Publications
Grantmakers (The Early Adopters”)
Watchers & Helpers (“The
Evangelists”)
Grant Receivers (“The Hungry”)
Summit To End The Overhead Myth: Meeting Report
SUMMIT TO END THE OVERHEAD MYTH
Cornell Club
New York City
January 14, 2014
PARTICIPANTS MEETING REPORT
Prepared by:
InsideNGO
Summit to End the Overhead Myth January 14, 2014 – The Cornell Club, NY—CONFIDENTIAL
OverheadSummitIIFundingtoSupportScaleandResults
SummitIII:UnravelingtheOverheadMyth,ExaminingSolu onsofPlay
TODAY
Slide Credit: InsideNGO
We must face this problem head-on.
can
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To move forward: A Modest Proposal
The Modest Proposal: Reimagine information about
nonprofits
1. The information must be multidimensional.
2. The information must be familiar to donors.
3. The packaging of nonprofit information must be standardized and efficiently distributed across the sector.
Proposal | multidimensional
User Reviews
Expert Reviews
Sustainability
Health Rating
Nutritional Quality
Cost of Food
Friends Recommendation
Ambiance
Local Government Agency
Proposal | multidimensional
Stakeholder/User Reviews
Experts surveys
Deep analysis of performance
Highly simplified star rating
Standard sets of quality Wise Giving
Alliance
Compare Impact
Friends’ Recommendation
External perspectives (Beneficiaries, Volunteers, Donors, Experts, Peers)
External analysis
Operational data
Financial data
Programmatic (qualitative)
Programmatic (quantitative)
Self-reported Third-party Inside-out Outside-in
Proposal | multidimensional
General
Calories, Fat, etc.
Vitamins
Ingredients
General
Financial
Programmatic
Mission
Operational
Caramel Corn GuideStar
Proposal | familiar
(HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE!)
Proposal | efficient distribution
Proposal | efficient distribution
Proposal | efficient distribution
Standardized
profile (familiar,
multidimensional)
Distribution
system 2
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DATA DISTRIBUTION DATA COLLECTION DATA INNOVATION
GuideStar’s Theory of Change
Quantity MORE GIVING
Quality SMARTER GIVING
Efficiency LESS WASTE
Effectiveness HIGH
PERFORMANCE
IMPACT
Donors Nonprofits
Trust in nonprofit
sector
Donor decisions
influenced by data
Supportive policy
environment
Simplified fundraising
systems
Greater collaboration
Fast learning among
nonprofits
Broad and deep information on nonprofits
New mechanisms for feedback and learning
Interconnected data systems
1 2 3
Standardized
profile (familiar,
multidimensional)
Distribution
system 2
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Government Self-reported Stakeholders
Sources of information about nonprofits in the United States
Strengths of Form 990 data: • It is relatively comprehensive (most
nonprofits have to fill it out) • It is in a standardized format
(nonprofits have to answer the same questions)
• It has great baseline information on mission, staff, board, and finances
Weaknesses of Form 990 data: • It does not have much data on
nonprofit programs or impact • The data tends to be at least a year
and a half old • It not specific to particular types of
nonprofits (for the most part)
Government Self-reported Stakeholders
Sources of information about nonprofits
Basic operational information
Financial information
Qualitative programmatic
information
Quantitative programmatic
information
1. What is your organization aiming to accomplish?
2. What are your strategies for making this happen?
3. What are your organization’s capabilities for doing this?
4. How will your organization know if you are making progress?
5. What have and haven’t so far?
Government Self-reported Stakeholders
Sources of information about nonprofits
Gather reviews from users
Structured input from experts
Deep analysis of performance
Highly simplified star rating
Collect basic info & set standard
of quality Wise Giving Alliance
Company Analysis
Standardized descriptions
DATA DISTRIBUTION DATA COLLECTION DATA INNOVATION
GuideStar’s Theory of Change
Quantity MORE GIVING
Quality SMARTER GIVING
Efficiency LESS WASTE
Effectiveness HIGH
PERFORMANCE
IMPACT
Donors Nonprofits
Trust in nonprofit
sector
Donor decisions
influenced by data
Supportive policy
environment
Simplified fundraising
systems
Greater collaboration
Fast learning among
nonprofits
Broad and deep information on nonprofits
New mechanisms for feedback and learning
Interconnected data systems
1 2 3
Data Collection
#GSImpactCall
1 B R O A D A N D D E E P I N F O R M AT I O N O N N O N P R O F I T S
s
Data Distribution I N T E R C O N N E C T E D D ATA S Y S T E M S
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Data Innovation N E W M E C H A N I S M S F O R F E E D B A C K A N D L E A R N G I N G
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The supply chain of nonprofit information – 2000
Sources Aggregators Hubs Channels Users
Nonprofits IRS GuideStar
Feedback?
Donors
The supply chain of nonprofit information – ~2015
Sources Aggregators Hubs Channels Users
Nonprofits IRS
Volunteers
Beneficiaries
Donors
Experts
Community foundations
GuideStar Great
Nonprofits
Fidelity
Vanguard
Schwab
Amazon.com
Network for Good
Volunteer Match
DonorEdge
Facebook Causes
Wealthy donors
Retail users
Foundation staff
Philanthropedia
GiveWell
Root Cause
Foundation Center
…
…
BBB Wise Giving Alliance
Feedback?
Solid lines are existing relationships Dotted lines are potential relationships
Foundation staff
Nonprofits
Media
Government
Foundations
The basics of “medium data” for the nonprofit sector:
A nonprofit common profile
…that is multidimensional,
…placed in context,
…linked to the key tech platforms of our time,
…and enhanced by constant cycles of innovation & learning…
…at scale
(without being a jerk)
Not chaos-like together crushed and bruised; But, as the world, harmoniously confused: Where order in variety we see; And where, though all things differ, all agree.
Alexander Pope, 1713
T H A N K Y O U !
Questions?
Raise your hand or
tweet #SDGNow @jacobcharold
T H A N K Y O U !
