Boeing, Walgreens, the Speh Foundation, Crowe Horwath LLP, the MacArthur Foundation, Easter Seals, the American Cancer Society—and Mission Measurement were among the corporations and organizations that lined the tables in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel.  What could draw such an impressive roster? The Donors Forum Luncheon.  On Wednesday, June 29th the Donors Forum held their 37th annual luncheon which offered nonprofit leaders, grantmakers, corporations, consultants, and civil servants the opportunity to discuss and learn about critical issues currently facing the nation, particularly in the nonprofit sector.  Noted columnist

Donors want to help charitable organizations make a difference, yet they often struggle to find succinct, consistent information about their investment options. Most of today's nonprofit databases and rating agencies rely too much on financial metrics.  This frustrates donors who care about outcomes.  It also frustrates nonprofits who want to be evaluated based on their results, not just an overhead ratio.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently hosted a mock trial on whether foundations are really fulfilling their mission of "advancing the common good".  As described by Caroline Preston, the foundations essentially lost (officially it was a hung jury), with 10 audience members voting that "philanthropy was guilty of falling short of its mission" and two dissenting. 

One of the most powerful tools that we use is the Success Equation.  We use this framework at the beginning of almost every client engagement and every workshop that we lead.  It encourages organizations to consider their impact as a simple regression equation:  A + B + C = D.   D is the ultimate impact you’re trying to achieve.  A, B, and C are the intermediate steps that lead to that impact.  They are the intermediate outcomes.  Your research and theory of change suggest that if you accomplish A, B, and C, then you will also accomplish D.  Only after the A, B, C, and D have been defined do we start talking about measurement. 

McCormick Place was teeming with fundraisers last week as development professionals from around the world came together in Chicago for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) International Conference.   The lineup was impressive – and inspiring.  Blake Mycoskie of Tom’s Shoes opened the conference on Sunday, Queen Latifah kicked off Monday, and President Bill Clinton closed out the conference on Tuesday.  

  Our team at Mission Measurement recently took a field trip to Loyola University to view the documentary Race to Nowhere.  The film was provocative for a number of reasons, but particularly from the perspective of outcomes-based thinking.

The Donors Forum of Chicago recently released its Economic Outlook 2011.  This annual survey confirmed many familiar realities - increasing demand in the face of less available funding, delayed government payments, and overworked staff.  Two rays of hope exist, however, due to a noticeable shift in grantmakers' funding focus.

Independent Sector has joined forces with BBB Wise Giving Alliance and GuideStar to buck the trend of failed (or faltering) attempts to identify commonalities in the nonprofit sector.  Common grant applications have not taken off.  Common outcomes are still uncommon.  Could this coalition produce a common framework for strategic thinking in the nonprofit sector? In an effort titled “Charting Impact” this trio of coalition members has guided development of the following 5-question framework:

Why does it cost nonprofits $20 to raise $100, when it only costs companies $4? The answer is that we may be raising money from the wrong people.  Most nonprofits today are focused on ”psychic” donors – those who have no direct stake in our work and derive no direct benefits, other than the “warm glow” of philanthropy.  The problem is that we have no leverage.  As a result, it is very hard to raise money.  If donors feel like supporting us, they will.  If they don’t, they won’t.  For nonprofits, it’s a tough way to live…

Over the holidays, I visited some old friends in California.  Our discussion over a loaf (or two!) of sourdough bread has been weighing on me more than the carbs I consumed that day.  Here’s the story: