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   

Summer Hunger Casts Shadow on American Children

Thought leader Bill Shore calls attention to the millions of children eligible for the federal summer meals program but who do not participate because of a lack of transportation and lack of awareness among families. “Across America, 21 million children get free or reduced-price school lunch every day. But just over 3 million of those kids receive free meals over the summer.”

“Missed meals can have a harmful effect on kids’ education: a study from the National Summer Learning Association shows that low-income children—the same group that depends on school meals for their basic nutrition—lose more than two months of reading achievement over the summer.” Shore calls on foundations and nonprofits to use their risk capital—their freedom to invest in longer term innovation—to create more flexible ways for states to feed kids in the summertime. 

Wave of Retiring Nonprofit Leaders Creates Challenges, Invites Change

The retirement of thousands of veteran nonprofit executives from the baby boom generation is challenging nonprofits around the country. In one recent study, “Nearly a third of New England nonprofit leaders surveyed say they plan to leave their jobs in the next two years, and almost two-thirds anticipate leaving within five years. Yet 60 percent of their organizations do not have a succession plan.” 

Writes Sacha Pfeiffer of The Boston Globe, “’The difficulty is you’ll have a huge loss of leadership and institutional memory, and the opportunity is you’ll have a lot of young people coming in better trained’ than their predecessors were when the sector was less professionalized several decades ago, said Barry Dym, executive director of Tufts University’s Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership. Indeed, younger nonprofit leaders are expected to bring more academic credentials and managerial experience to their jobs than their predecessors initially did, reshaping the sector in the process.” 

“The new guard is expected to rethink how the sector has traditionally been run. That could include a push for higher compensation. ‘I think younger leaders are looking at my generation of leaders like we were crazy—overworked, underresourced, lower salaries, you name it,’ said Marianne Hughes, who founded Boston-based Interaction Institute for Social Change in 1993 and stepped down three years ago. ‘They’re saying, ‘That’s insane and we’re not so interested in that,’ and I actually find that admirable.’” 

In Failure, Seeds of Possibility Seen for Social Impact Bonds 

A program at Rikers Island jail in New York to reduce recidivism among older youth has attracted widespread attention, as the first program of any kind in the nation to be funded by a social impact bond transaction. Though the program did not succeed in this particular setting, the way it was structured is being hailed for allowing officials to quickly determine its effectiveness, save public dollars, and build capacity. “The process forced public leaders to have conversations with parties inside and outside of government and likely helped create new capacity and infrastructure that can continue to benefit citizens, even though this particular intervention did not reach its goals.” 

Learning From Experienced Policy Funders

At a time when philanthropy is searching for ways to impact big issues like economic hardship, growing inequality, and climate change, and engagement in public policy is much explored, The Philanthropy Roundtable offers wisdom from decades of funders’ experience. In a new book, Agenda Setting: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Influencing Public Policy, authors Karl Zinsmeister and John J. Miller examine 107 efforts by philanthropists to influence policy, and draw lessons for donors such as these:

• Understand that it may take a long time to succeed;
• Cultivate new leaders;
• Build on fresh ideas;
• Form coalitions;
• Be ready to support elected officials who make tough decisions;
• Establish new nonprofits when necessary;
• Work through courts as well as legislatures;
• Give time and leadership as well as money; and
• Act locally to influence nationally.

For donors willing to think big, commit for the long term, take risks, tolerate setbacks, and stay the course, the payoffs are huge, the authors say.

In Global Ranking, U.S. Lags on Key Measures of Social Progress

In a recent New York Times essay, Nicholas Kristof reports,

“The Social Progress Index for 2015 ranks the United States 16th in the world. We may thump our chests and boast that we’re No. 1, and in some ways we are. But, in important ways, we lag.

The index ranks the United States 30th in life expectancy, 38th in saving children’s lives, and a humiliating 55th in women surviving childbirth. O.K., we know that we have a high homicide rate, but we’re at risk in other ways as well. We have higher traffic fatality rates than 37 other countries, and higher suicide rates than 80. We also rank 32nd in preventing early marriage, 38th in the equality of our education system, 49th in high school enrollment rates and 87th in cellphone use.

Michael E. Porter, the Harvard Business School professor who helped devise the Social Progress Index, says that it’s important to have conventional economic measures such as G.D.P. growth. But social progress is also a critical measure, he notes, of how a country is serving its people. ‘We’re not now No. 1 in a lot of stuff that traditionally we have been,’ said Professor Porter, an expert on international competitiveness. ‘What we’re learning is that the fact that we’re not No. 1 on this stuff also means that we’re facing long-term economic stresses.’ ‘We’re starting to understand that we can’t put economic development and social progress in two separate buckets,’ Porter added.” 

Hot Peppers, Community Gardens, and a New Business With a Triple Bottom Line

A sign that social enterprise is coming of age is that a newspaper story about a new community-minded business doesn’t even mention the fashionable term. In the Bronx, a group of friends launched a company that produces hot sauce to support community gardens, which often struggle to stay open on tiny budgets.

“Small Axe Peppers partnered with GrowNYC, a nonprofit group currently running 50 greenmarkets across the city, to find community gardens and farmers to grow the peppers, providing them with starter plants paid for by Small Axe. The group also connected the company to marketing and distribution experts and buyers. GrowNYC gets a share of the hot-sauce profits, which it plans to use for programming.”

“New Roots Community Farm, a half-acre garden on the Grand Concourse, stands to raise $600 from the peppers—double its profit from selling greens, tomatoes and herbs at a local farmers’ market last summer. The money will be used to supplement the garden’s $4,000 budget for seeds, tools and building materials, said Kathleen McTigue, who oversees the garden.”

The new venture also helps to employ teenagers with criminal records at one of the community gardens, who take care of the pepper plants. The teens work in the garden through a court order as an alternative to incarceration.

“Small Axe Peppers plans to produce 30,000 more bottles later this year…and is calling on community gardens in the Bronx to provide 5,000 pounds of the key ingredient.”

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. Follow Andy on Twitter @andycarrollexpo.