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A corporate member asked for what other corporations do regarding employee’s goal and objectives. Do they include volunteerism or volunteer activities as part of an employee’s review, or their annual goals?
A sample document detailing the core values of the Betty and Davis Fitzgerald Foundation including restrictions on participation on nonprofit/grantee boards.
CNJG Member survey ranking which issues are most important to them.
This piece captures five key insights to guide organizations as they develop ongoing Measurement, Learning, and Evaluation plans to achieve greater social impact:
- Theory of Change amplifies your impact—helping you focus on the linkages between, and assumptions underlying, your strategies and outcomes.
- Progress toward long-term goals is observable in interim measures.
- Setting targets along the way forecasts your trajectory and provides feedback that tells you if you’re moving in the right direction.
- Impactful measurement needs to align with the rhythm of your work and provide the right data at the right times.
- The payoff of measurement is in the practice, and putting that practice to use greatly increases your odds of success.
When confronted with measurement and evaluation, some turn first to the expensive and time-consuming practice of “gold standard” experimental designs requiring comparison groups to definitively prove whether an intervention delivers the expected results. While measurements of this type are reasonable in certain situations, they are often a stretch for the real world of social innovation and are limited in their timeliness, strategic value, cultural applicability, and validity for measuring the changes sought.
You can get more for less—by deploying measurement based on social science rigor and valuing adaptability and learning. In other words, social innovation is best measured in real time and in ways that can be seamlessly woven into the rhythm of the business cycle and the daily practices of those responsible for funding, managing, and implementing social change.
Newark is one step closer to its highly anticipated Guaranteed Income Pilot Program following the release of a report by the city, the Jain Family Institute and the Economic Security Project outlining findings and recommendations that would put more cash into residents’ hands.
Mayor Ras Baraka first broached the idea of a universal basic income pilot program at a 2019 State of the City address, saying it would be a welcome experiment in Newark, where more than a third of residents live below the poverty line. Universal basic income is a government benefit that aims to reduce income inequality through direct cash infusion.
More than a year later, the report completed by the city’s special task force is positioning Newark to join a national body of research on guaranteed income. The pilot program would focus specifically on residents struggling with housing insecurity, according to the city.
“What we really want to do is add to the national body of research and put Newark on a national stage,” said Kevin Callaghan, Newark’s philanthropic liaison. “This is Mayor Baraka entering a conversation and saying this is something that we support, and the top recommendation of the report is that there should be a federal guaranteed income policy.”
With the support of JFI and ESP, two internationally recognized research groups, Newark will begin to cast a line to national foundations and donors to fund the pilot. The report estimates anywhere between $4.5 million to $12 million based on three studies, but Callghan put the sweet spot around $5 million for meaningful results.
Estimates say that a Newark family would need $63,000 a year to meet its basic needs, according to United Way of Greater Newark.
Strengthening its ongoing commitment to addressing the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic while advancing its core mission to raise awareness of the state’s unique and diverse historical legacy, the New Jersey Historical Commission (NJHC) has approved approximately $4.9 million in Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 22) grant funding to over 100 historical organizations, museums, historic sites, archives, libraries, individuals, and county re-grant agencies across the state.
The $4.9 million in FY 22 funding will support the New Jersey Historical Commission’s General Operating Support (GOS) program, which covers an array of operational expenses for qualified history organizations; Projects and Co-Sponsored Projects, which includes New Jersey-based historical research, exhibits, programs, and archival work; and the County History Partnership Program (CHPP), which provides all 21 counties with funding for local history groups statewide. FY 22 funding will also be dedicated to planning, coordinating, and implementing initiatives to promote best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion ahead of the NJHC’s new, three-year funding cycle in FY 2023.
“This marks another chapter in the Department of State’s continuing efforts to aid New Jersey’s history community in navigating the unprecedented financial challenges brought about by the pandemic,” noted Secretary of State Tahesha Way. “Funding for history organizations has increased considerably over the past two years, support that will not only secure the future of essential jobs, civics education, and programming across diverse disciplines, but serve to maximize the sector’s growth in the years to come.”
The Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN) and Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) invite you to join an informal conversation to learn from funder peers who are practicing participatory grantmaking (PG). We’ll begin with a brief overview of PG, and how this practice can be used to center equity and justice as we shift away from extractive grantmaking practices. We’ll then hear from a few HEFN and SAFSF members who are implementing different models of PG in their grantmaking.
If you’re new to the concept of participatory grantmaking, this webinar is a great opportunity to see examples of it in action. If you’re familiar with participatory grantmaking (or working to implement these practices in your own world), this is a chance to dive deeper into others’ practices for learnings and insight. Time will be reserved in the agenda for discussions in smaller groups and, as you might expect, the call will be participatory!
Speakers:
Amanda Tello, St. Louis Environmental Justice Fund
Shavaun Evans, Food and Farm Communications Fund
Mark Muller, Regenerative Agriculture Foundation
Resources
Zoom Recording
Webinar slides
Deciding Together Shifting Power and Resources Through Participatory Grantmaking
Amanda Tello’s communal agreements
PG Learning Community Summary