by Deborah Bain
Bruce Fenton writes today in the Fenton Report [2] about exemplary organizations like Ploughshares Fund "that are not satisfied to measure their achievements in terms of dollars given and grants made. They care instead about social impact: how many lives their charitable activities have changed for the better." He goes on to observe that "not-for-profits that make a great social impact have something that other not-for-profits don’t: a smart strategy."
The inspiration behind Fenton's post is the recently published Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy [3] by Paul Brest [4], president of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation [5], and Hal Harvey [6], president of ClimateWorks [7]. For Brest and Harvey, a smart strategy includes the following:
§ Achieving great clarity about one’s philanthropic goals
§ Specifying indicators of success before beginning a project
§ Designing and implementing a plan commensurate with available resources
§ Evidence-based understanding of the world in which the plan will operate
§ Paying careful attention to milestones to determine if you are on the path to success or if midcourse corrections are necessary
Harvey has good reason for identifying Ploughshares Fund as a case study in smart strategy and social impact. A lifelong advocate for transforming global nuclear policy, he served on Ploughshares Fund's Board of Directors for over a decade, and is currently a member of our advisory board.
Deborah Bain [8]is communications director of the Ploughshares Fund.
(photo: flickr/amagill [9])
Links
[1] https://www.ploughshares.org/file/718
[2] http://www.fentonreport.com/2009/05/12/living/now-more-than-ever-philanthropists-foundations-and-not-for-profits-need-to-make-sure-that-their-money-is-well-spent/730
[3] http://www.smartphilanthropy.org/
[4] http://www.smartphilanthropy.org/authors.html
[5] http://www.hewlett.org/
[6] http://www.ploughshares.org/about-us/hal-harvey
[7] http://www.climateworks.org
[8] http://ploughshares.org/about-us/deborah-bain
[9] http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/3366720659/