Distilling decades of leadership expertise into an effective framework, this is a practical guidebook for nonprofits around the globe, with practical recommendations for the urgently needed steps to make this a better world. Charities in the United States and NGOs globally need to overcome two glaring and persistent weaknesses in the eyes of potential donors: trustworthiness and effectiveness. After examining possible causes for these deficits, fundraising and organizational development guru Ken Phillips guides readers through the process that leads to greater trust and respect by donors, better results for beneficiaries, significantly increased funding, and better and bigger programs. Alongside helpful worksheets, he presents seven steps to make sure ethics are meaningful, eight disciplines to ensure programs achieve good results, and a communications approach to demonstrate responsibility and accountability, all interwoven with inspiring case studies from his own international experience and other organizations’ stories.
Staff and volunteers at registered nonprofits around the world, as well as any individual or group raising funds more informally, will value this guide to empower organizations to win trust, raise more funds, and achieve greater program impact.
Author(s): Kenneth H. Phillips
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 271
City: New York
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Contributors
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Author
Look for these paperback books and e-books in Ken Phillips' Civil Society Series
Bibliography
Introduction: The importance of the charitable sector and its two biggest challenges
The two biggest challenges - Ethics and evaluation
What is the question?
Trust and impact are the answers
Let's be perfectly clear ...
Notes
Bibliography
Part I: Meaningful ethics for trust
Nonprofit ethics and building trust
To be awesome!
Teamwork is exhilarating!
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 1: Funding in the charitable sector - Large but underperforming
The U.S. charity sector is large but underperforming
Total donations of $484.9 billion could grow to $969.8 billion
Nonprofits need to look inward
Value of money to the donor and to charity - How to increase total social value to society
What about the value of money for the recipient charity and society?
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 2: Possible causes for the underperformance of funding
Hypothesis 1: People don't have enough money
Individual giving as percent of disposable income
Corporate giving as a percentage of corporate pretax profits
Hypothesis 2: The needs are already being met
Hypothesis 3: Tax benefits don't provide enough incentive for donations
Hypothesis 4: Charity and generosity have decreased these days - People just don't care
Much research has confirmed that helping others is important for the helpers, too. Two examples
Hypothesis 5: Nonprofits don't have enough trust, impact, or non-fundraising communication
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 3: Decrease in public trust in NGOs and the importance of speaking up
Some good news ...
Earn trust through six qualities
A new mandate for nonprofits: Send communications that do not ask for money
CHALLENGE #1: NGOs must communicate more about all they do for beneficiaries and for society (not just fundraising)
Here's the proof communications help
CHALLENGE #2: Nonprofit leaders must step up and speak out as authorities on the needs in society, the many roles of NGOs, and progress toward important goals
CHALLENGE #3: Corporate CEOs should step up and speak out as business leaders and advocates for NGOs about the importance of civil society
Trust is precarious
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 4: How to earn trust and implement the seven imperatives for meaningful ethics to be trusted and to increase funding
PRIORITY #1: Make sure your nonprofit is functioning well - An absolute requirement
Special obligations for nonprofits
Nonprofit roles and responsibilities
Excellence in governance and management - A first priority for trust
PRIORITY #2: Achieve real impact for beneficiaries and results for society
PRIORITY #3: Adopt and enforce a meaningful organization-wide code of ethics
What is a meaningful code of ethics?
PRIORITY #4: Commit to transparency and accountability and establish an independent Chief Trust Officer in the organization
PRIORITY #5: Enable everyone in the organization to step up with responsibility to improve operations, especially to ensure trust and impact
Spotlight on the five priorities
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 5: InterAction case study - Drafting a code of ethics in a participatory process for greater ownership
Developing the code of ethics (called the InterAction PVO Standards)
A participatory process results in greater ownership
InterAction's experience with the PVO Standards (NGO Code of Ethics)
Assistance and compliance
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 6: Three progressive case studies - Developing stronger codes of ethics with external verification
Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations' self-assessment and peer review process
National Council for Voluntary Organization's self-assessment and external verification process
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' self-assessment and external expert review process with the possibility of sanctions
It is critical to supplement self-assessment with an independent review
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 7: Rhode Island case study - Ensuring enforcement and sanctions for more effective codes of ethics
Learn from the Rhode Island experience to achieve meaningful ethics
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 8: Twelve lessons to earn trust - Clarity, assessments, sanctions, reporting, and more
LESSON 1: Both financial support and volunteer support for nonprofits depend on trust
LESSON 2: Board members, staff, and volunteers need clear ethical standards to assure they are doing things in a proper way and to be held accountable
LESSON 3: Board members, staff, and volunteers should be involved in a participatory process to develop, apply, and assess the code to assure ethical behavior
LESSON 4: The board of directors should draft and affirm its own written code of ethics
LESSON 5: Every organization should have a system to encourage and act on complaints, concerns, and whistleblowing about possible infractions
LESSON 6: Individual NGOs and NGO associations must be serious about their codes of ethics
LESSON 7: An organization should be prepared to deal with a scandal
LESSON 8: Nonprofits and their NGO associations benefit by developing a culture of sharing about ethics
LESSON 9: It has often been the initiative of one person to introduce and generate support for a code of ethics for an NGO or association
LESSON 10: The fundraising director can take the lead in all these activities when there is need to do so
LESSON 11: You can play a role at the national level and become known as an advocate for strong codes of ethics for all nonprofits
LESSON 12: To gain a full measure of trust, an organization needs self-assessments, external verification, enforcement, sanctions, and reporting to support a code of ethics
Twelve realities to consider
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 9: Worksheet for ethics and trust
Questions before implementation
Drafting a meaningful code of ethics (or code of conduct) for your organization
Part II: Strategic evaluation for respect
Chapter 10: Strategic evaluation for impact
Data about trust and impact and donations are clear and convincing
Philanthropy in America is in deep crisis
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 11: Problems with monitoring and evaluation - Resistance and donor mandates
Overcoming resistance to monitoring and evaluation
What's right and what's wrong with donor-mandated evaluation
Why not more funding for nonprofit organizations?
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 12: From project management to capacity building to strategic evaluation
Let's step back
What is strategic evaluation?
Cautions from examples: Why every nonprofit needs strategic evaluation
The better approach for mentoring and learning (M&L) for better results
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 13: Strategic evaluation - A powerful tool for learning and increasing impact
To become a more supporting, verifying, and learning organization
Steps to make evaluation strategic - Strategy is about how you will do something
Eight priority disciplines in the strategic evaluation process - Each is a tool for mentoring, evaluating, learning, and improving
Are YOU up to this challenge?
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 14: How to implement the eight priority disciplines in strategic evaluation for better programs, more funding, expanded programs, and more engaged employees
DISCIPLINE 1: Board responsibility - Establish strategic evaluation as policy and priority
Action steps for the board of directors
DISCIPLINE 2: Management responsibility - Implement strategic evaluation as strategy and practice
Action steps for managers
A brief digression on good strategic and operational planning
DISCIPLINE 3: A culture of learning - How to assure mentoring and learning (M&L) improve results
Action steps for a culture of learning and development
DISCIPLINE 4: Mentoring (with monitoring) - How to be an effective supervisor for supporting, correcting, learning, and achieving
Action steps for effective monitoring as mentoring
DISCIPLINE 5: Evaluation of program strategy - How to be certain your program strategy is valid
Action steps to validate strategy
DISCIPLINE 6: Evaluation of long-term results - How to know what impact you actually achieve
Action steps for evaluation of results and lasting impact
DISCIPLINE 7: Organizational self-assessment - How to learn and improve from each other
Action steps for organizational self-assessment
DISCIPLINE 8: Mutual accountability - How to know you are working well with partners
Action steps for mutual accountability with partners
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 15: Eight case studies - Progressing to strategic evaluation with data, research, learning, and accountability
Case study: Embedded evaluation in everything you do, so you always know where you are
Case study: Action research or action learning as a first step to learn and develop
Case study: Training in monitoring and evaluation as a standard for good management
Case study: Measurable results and quality control to know how you are progressing
Case study: From progress tracking to strategy assessment to getting a better program strategy
Case study: Monitoring and evaluation with data for better learning and greater impact
Case study: Integrated participatory planning, monitoring, and evaluation for learning and impact
Case study: From an M&E beginning to a complete MEAL with accountability and learning
Case study: Measurement, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) for partner NGOs
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 16: Three case studies - Developing strategic evaluation in practice
EXAMPLE 1. Save the Children US - Evaluation for program development and learning
Developing new program strategy at Save the Children US
Using ongoing evaluations to learn and grow
How evaluation has changed for the best NGOs
How evaluation contributed to a poverty alleviation and nutrition program in Vietnam
Data-driven evaluations help to win a $50 million grant for newborn children
Development of retrospective impact evaluation (RIE) and research evidence and learning (REL)
EXAMPLE 2. Plan International - A comprehensive approach to evaluation and learning
Early efforts at evaluation
Next steps included new grants, more meaningful evaluations, and an emphasis on quality
Implementing a new corporate planning, monitoring, and evaluation system (CPME)
The next step: Adding a program audit (PA)
Strategic thinking is informed by evaluation data
Ongoing, in-depth evaluation is key to becoming a learning organization (LO)
Improving habitat: An example of evaluation, learning, and development (ELD)
Plan's current approach: Monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL)
EXAMPLE 3. InterTeam - A model for smaller organizations that cannot afford sophisticated evaluation processes
Developing a new evaluation method in a consortium
Soft indicators versus measurable verification
Conclusions from the shared evaluation process
How can YOU implement strategic evaluation to improve your impact?
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 17: Lessons for leaders, managers, fundraisers, and grantmakers for trust and impact
To have better results and raise more money, address ethics for trust and evaluation for impact
Lessons about earning trust by behaving well and achieving impact
Lessons about demonstrating excellence in management
Lessons about involving participants in sustainability and impact
Lessons to strengthen the NGO sector
Lessons from grantmakers
Lessons for grantmakers to further the development of society
Lessons about stepping up to lead inside your NGO
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 18: Worksheets for evaluation, learning, and impact
Worksheet I: Assessment of the evaluation process by an evaluation specialist
Worksheet II: Review - How we used the different evaluation disciplines
Worksheet III: Report by each department director
Worksheet IV: Report by the person responsible for monitoring and evaluation
About the author: Get involved! Step up! It is easy to do.
As initiator and supporter of codes of ethics and evaluation
As author on NGO ethics and evaluation
As a presenter on ethics and evaluation at workshops and classes
As a researcher
Honored with many awards and recognition
As an activist where I lived or worked - I did it and you can, too
Index
