By Andy Carroll, Exponent Philanthropy

I regularly explore trends influencing philanthropy by spotlighting articles, reports, and essays in the media. I cast a wide net, venturing beyond philanthropy and traditional topics to consider a variety of ideas, innovations, debates, and critiques. Read previous posts in the series   

Working Americans Struggle to Earn a Living

Recent articles spotlight continuing economic hardship faced by millions of working Americans, including nonprofit employees, and the forces responsible. Key trends include the high cost of housing and health care, low wages, and lack of income growth in recent decades. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, median income for working-age households (headed by someone under age 65) slid 12.4% from 2000 to 2011, to $55,640.

I highlight two articles:

• The San Francisco Chronicle profiles the impact on nonprofits of steep increases in the city’s real estate costs, which makes rents difficult to afford for employees and their organizations. The squeeze has fueled demonstrations by nonprofits and their supporters at City Hall and City Council meetings. Protesters point out that the mayor’s proposed increase in allocations for nonprofits is less than the increase for city workers, and call upon the city, which relies on nonprofits to deliver crucial human services, to increase its allocations. Journalist Marisa Lagos writes, “…nonprofits and their workers have seen little increase in the amount of money they get from the city—just 5% since 2007. From 2007 to 2012, there were no increases, and many have had to cut staff or services to stay solvent.” One nonprofit that offers housing, counseling, and other services to people with chronic mental health problems has seen rent hikes as high as 135% at some of its buildings.

• The New York Times highlights a newer challenge for American workers–businesses’ use of computer scheduling models to increase staffing efficiency and reduce labor costs. The computer models disrupt regular work schedules, making it more difficult for parents to align work with their children’s daycare and school schedules. Journalist Jodi Kantor follows Jannette Navarro, a single mother in San Diego who struggles to support herself and her 4-year son on a $9-an-hour job. Ms. Navarro’s work schedule is cut into continually changing, irregular slices, forcing her to improvise her son’s daily care, and preventing her progress toward an associate degree in business. Writes Kantor, “Like increasing numbers of low-income mothers and fathers, Ms. Navarro is at the center of a new collision that pits sophisticated workplace technology against some fundamental requirements of parenting, with particularly harsh consequences for poor single mothers.”

A Nonprofit Shares Its Data and Improves Its Field

Continual innovation in technology offers new opportunities for funders and nonprofits to use data to make smart decisions. As thought leaders like Lucy Bernholz have pointed out, one promising use of data is for nonprofits and foundations to share their evaluation and research data publicly to increase effectiveness for all.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently highlighted an example. Crisis Text Line, a group that helps teens get crisis counseling and referrals by sending text messages on their cellphones, is making data available about thousands of counseling sessions in the hope that academics, government officials, and other charities can help even more troubled young people. “With researchers and policymakers being starved for this kind of data, suddenly they’ll be able to make more informed decisions about how do you try to help teens in crisis,” says Bob Filbin, chief data scientist at Crisis Text Line. “Mr. Filbin thinks more nonprofits need to weigh whether they can expand the impact of their work by making their data available to others.”

The Courage to Adjust Course 

To encourage more risk-taking and experimentation in philanthropy, thought leaders are talking up the benefits of failure. Fail often, fail fast, and adjust course as you learn, they advise. But it’s seldom noted how difficult this is to do, in a society that prizes winning and “staying the course.” Caitrin Nicol Keiper of The Philanthropy Roundtable, reviewing a new book on failure, points out the fortitude required to fail well.

“Of particular interest to philanthropists will be the section on ‘the peril of the promising pilot’—why taking what seems to be a great project and expanding it often doesn’t work. [The author] surveys a number of celebrated launches gone awry, and notes that the difference in how they ultimately fared was not due to the level of risk undertaken, or the amount of information collected beforehand, but whether or not the directors were brutally honest with themselves when the results were not as expected—honest enough to change course.”

Related posts

8 Sources of Data to Inform Your Giving
How to Make Big Data Relevant and Useful
Tolerate More Risk to Advance Social Change?

Senior Program Director Andy Carroll writes resources, designs workshops, and facilitates seminars for funders. Andy also dedicates a significant portion of his time to managing our Leadership Initiative that defines, validates, nurtures, and celebrates the many ways philanthropists lead. Andy has 25 years of experience in nonprofit organizations, and he enjoys talking with funders about their questions, interests, passions, and plans for making a difference.