ENGAGE draws on the experience and knowledge of over 40 leaders and practitioners in the field who are using networks to create change; digs into the deep pool of writing on the topic; and mines the significant experience in working with networks that is resident in both Monitor Institute and The Rockefeller Foundation. The result is an aggregation and synthesis of some of the leading thinking in both the theory and practice of engaging with networks as a grantmaker.
Visit: http://engage.rockefellerfoundation.org/ to see more.
The Hidden Value of a Social Strategy: Social Listening in PracticeBrandwatch
In this whitepaper, we introduce several areas where social intelligence promotes a business’s goals but will never receive attribution for doing so. Specifically, while word-of-mouth recommendations are the most trusted form of marketing, their effects on sales may never be quantified through social alone.
How Open is Eating the World (Gordon Haff) ProductCamp Boston May 2013ProductCamp Boston
How Open is Eating the World (and What it Means for Marketing)
Open source has been one of the biggest stories in the world of software over the past decade and more. And, today, the principles underpinning the open source software movement are cropping up in more and more different forms in more and more different places. If you have any connection to marketing in just about any field, these trends are affecting you.
This presentation will take you through what open source really means. (Hint, it's not just free software.) It will discuss the bigger trends around openness and collaboration. And it will look at some of the business model implications, both of working with open and competing with it.
This presentation will have a broader scope and will focus less on the technical aspects, but it will have common threads with this one that I presented at the Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco earlier in April: http://bitmason.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-presentation-from-linux.html
Getting Started with Enterprise Social NetworkingDavid Stephens
This presentation is to introduce social software and social networking. It includes a demo of Lotus Connections and some information on how to get started quickly with a Lotus Connections deployment.
Measuring social media as a complex, adaptive system, presented by Gerald KaneSocialMedia.org
In his Brands-Only Summit Pre-Conference presentation, Boston College and MIT-Sloan Management Review's Gerald Kane presents research that measures social media as a complex adaptive system.
He shares his findings based on a study of Wikipedia that relate to measuring ever-evolving social networks.
For some lawyers, especially litigators, social media is a tool that helps them provide better representation to their clients. Whether it’s mining social media for evidence or researching jurors online, social media is helping them to make their clients’ cases in court. Learn about Lawyers and Social Media in 2016 in this MyCase Legal Infographic.
The Hidden Value of a Social Strategy: Social Listening in PracticeBrandwatch
In this whitepaper, we introduce several areas where social intelligence promotes a business’s goals but will never receive attribution for doing so. Specifically, while word-of-mouth recommendations are the most trusted form of marketing, their effects on sales may never be quantified through social alone.
How Open is Eating the World (Gordon Haff) ProductCamp Boston May 2013ProductCamp Boston
How Open is Eating the World (and What it Means for Marketing)
Open source has been one of the biggest stories in the world of software over the past decade and more. And, today, the principles underpinning the open source software movement are cropping up in more and more different forms in more and more different places. If you have any connection to marketing in just about any field, these trends are affecting you.
This presentation will take you through what open source really means. (Hint, it's not just free software.) It will discuss the bigger trends around openness and collaboration. And it will look at some of the business model implications, both of working with open and competing with it.
This presentation will have a broader scope and will focus less on the technical aspects, but it will have common threads with this one that I presented at the Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco earlier in April: http://bitmason.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-presentation-from-linux.html
Getting Started with Enterprise Social NetworkingDavid Stephens
This presentation is to introduce social software and social networking. It includes a demo of Lotus Connections and some information on how to get started quickly with a Lotus Connections deployment.
Measuring social media as a complex, adaptive system, presented by Gerald KaneSocialMedia.org
In his Brands-Only Summit Pre-Conference presentation, Boston College and MIT-Sloan Management Review's Gerald Kane presents research that measures social media as a complex adaptive system.
He shares his findings based on a study of Wikipedia that relate to measuring ever-evolving social networks.
For some lawyers, especially litigators, social media is a tool that helps them provide better representation to their clients. Whether it’s mining social media for evidence or researching jurors online, social media is helping them to make their clients’ cases in court. Learn about Lawyers and Social Media in 2016 in this MyCase Legal Infographic.
6 Top Social Media Trends That Will Transform Your Business in 2016Post Planner
The social media landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, but then, you already know that. Like us, you live and breathe it daily.
You’ve watched the surge in video marketing and probably even felt the tug to get involved. It’s hard not to jump onboard when when it seems to be growing at a lightning pace.
Heck, in 2015 alone, Twitter launched video autoplay, Blab rose to social stardom and Periscope grew to 1.85 million daily active viewers. Those are some 'drop-the-mic' statistics.
What if you could kickoff your year looking forward, instead of backward? As the saying goes, "the past is like using your rear-view mirror. It’s good to glance back and see how far you’ve come, but if you stare too long, you miss what’s right in front of you."
First, anticipate trends that will impact your business. Second, incorporate a strategy to frequently assess what's working (and what's not). And finally, position your company to quickly make decisions that make a positive impact.
Ready to hit the ground running in 2016? Read on! Below are the top social media trends that will transform your marketing efforts.
If you are seeing additional trends that should be added to this list, please leave them in the comments below. We'd love to learn from you too!
What Are 7 Steps Every Social Strategist Must Take To Help Their Organization...Dr. William J. Ward
Whitepaper from Spreadfast here: The 7 Whiteboard Sessions Every Social Strategist Needs To Have
- Understanding your social customer
- Adopting social companywide
- Developing workflows and processes
- Maximizing content
- Creating meaningful engagement
- Integrating social with other channels
- Proving social ROI
Open Brands: How Social Media is Pushing Radical Transparency on Brand Manage...Earthsite
Learn how Social Media is pushing radical transparency in brand management. Includes new research on Social Media Policy and calculating Social Media ROI. Social Media case studies of The North Face and Drugstore.com.
Influencer marketing continues to evolve with some brands looking to double their investment in 2017. In this session our team shares their experience, expertise and what to expect in the coming year.
How LinkedIn is Adapting its Platform for Higher Education - David ThackerLinkedIn
Originally presented during EducationConnect 2014 on 10/28/14 in NYC, David Thacker, Vice President of Product for LinkedIn, demonstrates how LinkedIn is adapting targeting, personalization, lead-capture, nurturing and attribution to better serve education marketers.
This session will explore how online fundraising, email communication, and social media played an important role in nonprofit relief efforts for the Haiti earthquake. Participants will learn how to develop a rapid response plan, be prepared online for emergencies, and implement best practices from across the nonprofit sector.
My Social Media Breakfast Syracuse presentation
BRIDGING THE DIGITAL SOCIAL SKILLS GAP
SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE ENTERPRISE
Digital literacy and social media etiquette are becoming critical skill sets for individuals and organizations. According to a Harvard Business Review Report, 79% of companies are either using or planning to use social media channels, but only 12% believe they are using them effectively. At the same time, 90% of professional communicators in another study reported that they have to figure things out on their own and receive no training.
Join Dr. William J. Ward (a.k.a. DR4WARD), social media professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, as he explores several strategies for how you can help yourself and your organizations to bridge the digital social skills gap and improve your internal/external communication and collaboration.
The ICCO Global Summit which took place in Oxford, UK, from 29-30 September, 2016 offered two days of great conversations with colleagues coming from all over the world. MSLGROUP's SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Pascal Beucler was invited to discuss why Branded Content and Entertainment are a new boundary, and a sweet spot to hit for PR professionals.
Based on Pascal's experience last June at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as a juror in the newly created Entertainment Jury: this has been a week-long fantastic experience, evaluating how talent and ample narrative formats can elevate content into the cultural mainstream.
Social Media around the World 2012 (by InSites Consulting)InSites Consulting
Social Media around the World 2012 report by InSites Consulting (data collected by SSI and translations by No Problem). The full reports offers 5 eye-catching insights on the status of social media and more than 2.000 facts & figures about social media in 19 countries. Topics cover main adoption and usage, interactions of consumers with brands, impact of branded conversations, evolution of mobile and the opportunities for structural collaboration between consumers and brands. For more information contact Marketing@InSites-Consulting.com.
Nonprofit Social Media Learning Series - Marketing CommunicationChad Norman
Part I of the Nonprofit Social Media Learning Series: Marketing Communication was delivered at the 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference on March 17th, 2011.
Overview:
Regional economy on the rebound:
- New York City, Long Island on a solid growth trajectory
- New Jersey, Upstate New York, Fairfield County growing moderately
- Puerto Rico appears to be back in a downturn
Update on sectors that have lagged:
- State & local government job cuts continue in some but not all of the region
New York City’s brisk recovery continues to get little help from Wall St.
Construction & housing had weighed down recovery but are now reviving
Working from the bottom of the backlog - 1% dayPriyanka Bhasin
This talk was given at Last Conference, Melbourne on 30/06/2016.
All teams usually work on the top items of their backlog but we decided to dedicate one day to work from the bottom of the backlog, and that day was a 1% day.
Usually, the backlog of every product team comprises of cards that can qualify as “quick wins”, yet they do not see light of the day. This mainly happens because team and product owners want to work on things that provided maximum customer value. However, it is important to remember that some of these small improvements can actually delight your customers hence making a big difference.
This talk was our experience report of how we ran this experiment at a product team by putting the entire team on fixing these long impending quick wins. Criteria of selection was simple – anything that could move from “to do” to “done” in a day. It did require some prep work in order to execute the experiment successfully. But the result was fantastic, we managed to move a sizeable amount of cards to the “done” state, the team as a whole feels motivated and we are now looking forward to more such collaboration opportunities ahead of us.
6 Top Social Media Trends That Will Transform Your Business in 2016Post Planner
The social media landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, but then, you already know that. Like us, you live and breathe it daily.
You’ve watched the surge in video marketing and probably even felt the tug to get involved. It’s hard not to jump onboard when when it seems to be growing at a lightning pace.
Heck, in 2015 alone, Twitter launched video autoplay, Blab rose to social stardom and Periscope grew to 1.85 million daily active viewers. Those are some 'drop-the-mic' statistics.
What if you could kickoff your year looking forward, instead of backward? As the saying goes, "the past is like using your rear-view mirror. It’s good to glance back and see how far you’ve come, but if you stare too long, you miss what’s right in front of you."
First, anticipate trends that will impact your business. Second, incorporate a strategy to frequently assess what's working (and what's not). And finally, position your company to quickly make decisions that make a positive impact.
Ready to hit the ground running in 2016? Read on! Below are the top social media trends that will transform your marketing efforts.
If you are seeing additional trends that should be added to this list, please leave them in the comments below. We'd love to learn from you too!
What Are 7 Steps Every Social Strategist Must Take To Help Their Organization...Dr. William J. Ward
Whitepaper from Spreadfast here: The 7 Whiteboard Sessions Every Social Strategist Needs To Have
- Understanding your social customer
- Adopting social companywide
- Developing workflows and processes
- Maximizing content
- Creating meaningful engagement
- Integrating social with other channels
- Proving social ROI
Open Brands: How Social Media is Pushing Radical Transparency on Brand Manage...Earthsite
Learn how Social Media is pushing radical transparency in brand management. Includes new research on Social Media Policy and calculating Social Media ROI. Social Media case studies of The North Face and Drugstore.com.
Influencer marketing continues to evolve with some brands looking to double their investment in 2017. In this session our team shares their experience, expertise and what to expect in the coming year.
How LinkedIn is Adapting its Platform for Higher Education - David ThackerLinkedIn
Originally presented during EducationConnect 2014 on 10/28/14 in NYC, David Thacker, Vice President of Product for LinkedIn, demonstrates how LinkedIn is adapting targeting, personalization, lead-capture, nurturing and attribution to better serve education marketers.
This session will explore how online fundraising, email communication, and social media played an important role in nonprofit relief efforts for the Haiti earthquake. Participants will learn how to develop a rapid response plan, be prepared online for emergencies, and implement best practices from across the nonprofit sector.
My Social Media Breakfast Syracuse presentation
BRIDGING THE DIGITAL SOCIAL SKILLS GAP
SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE ENTERPRISE
Digital literacy and social media etiquette are becoming critical skill sets for individuals and organizations. According to a Harvard Business Review Report, 79% of companies are either using or planning to use social media channels, but only 12% believe they are using them effectively. At the same time, 90% of professional communicators in another study reported that they have to figure things out on their own and receive no training.
Join Dr. William J. Ward (a.k.a. DR4WARD), social media professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, as he explores several strategies for how you can help yourself and your organizations to bridge the digital social skills gap and improve your internal/external communication and collaboration.
The ICCO Global Summit which took place in Oxford, UK, from 29-30 September, 2016 offered two days of great conversations with colleagues coming from all over the world. MSLGROUP's SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Pascal Beucler was invited to discuss why Branded Content and Entertainment are a new boundary, and a sweet spot to hit for PR professionals.
Based on Pascal's experience last June at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as a juror in the newly created Entertainment Jury: this has been a week-long fantastic experience, evaluating how talent and ample narrative formats can elevate content into the cultural mainstream.
Social Media around the World 2012 (by InSites Consulting)InSites Consulting
Social Media around the World 2012 report by InSites Consulting (data collected by SSI and translations by No Problem). The full reports offers 5 eye-catching insights on the status of social media and more than 2.000 facts & figures about social media in 19 countries. Topics cover main adoption and usage, interactions of consumers with brands, impact of branded conversations, evolution of mobile and the opportunities for structural collaboration between consumers and brands. For more information contact Marketing@InSites-Consulting.com.
Nonprofit Social Media Learning Series - Marketing CommunicationChad Norman
Part I of the Nonprofit Social Media Learning Series: Marketing Communication was delivered at the 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference on March 17th, 2011.
Overview:
Regional economy on the rebound:
- New York City, Long Island on a solid growth trajectory
- New Jersey, Upstate New York, Fairfield County growing moderately
- Puerto Rico appears to be back in a downturn
Update on sectors that have lagged:
- State & local government job cuts continue in some but not all of the region
New York City’s brisk recovery continues to get little help from Wall St.
Construction & housing had weighed down recovery but are now reviving
Working from the bottom of the backlog - 1% dayPriyanka Bhasin
This talk was given at Last Conference, Melbourne on 30/06/2016.
All teams usually work on the top items of their backlog but we decided to dedicate one day to work from the bottom of the backlog, and that day was a 1% day.
Usually, the backlog of every product team comprises of cards that can qualify as “quick wins”, yet they do not see light of the day. This mainly happens because team and product owners want to work on things that provided maximum customer value. However, it is important to remember that some of these small improvements can actually delight your customers hence making a big difference.
This talk was our experience report of how we ran this experiment at a product team by putting the entire team on fixing these long impending quick wins. Criteria of selection was simple – anything that could move from “to do” to “done” in a day. It did require some prep work in order to execute the experiment successfully. But the result was fantastic, we managed to move a sizeable amount of cards to the “done” state, the team as a whole feels motivated and we are now looking forward to more such collaboration opportunities ahead of us.
Find out more at: http://www.brand24.net
Social media monitoring makes it possible to see what is being said about your brand or a product.
Top 30 Most Interactive Tech Blogs Report.
More about the report: http://brand24.net/reports/top-most-interactive-tech-blogs
We analysed 2 476 124 interactions related to Top 30 Tech Blogs (according to Technorati.com list / 20th of October 2013). The primary goal of the analysis was to determine which tech blogs are most interactive both internally and on social media.
We created 14 categories to measure interactivity: average onsite comments per post, total onsite comments, total Facebook likes, total Facebook shares, total Facebook comments, average Facebook likes per post, average Facebook shares per post, average Facebook comments per post, average Facebook interactions (total) per post, total Twitter shares, average Twitter shares per post, total Twitter + Facebook interactions , average Twitter + FB interactions per post.
The blogs that appear most frequently in the top 5 for the mentioned categories are: Theverge.com (13 times), Gizmodo.com (12), Mashable.com (12) and Businessinsider.com (11). Mashable.com always takes either first or second place, whenever it shows up in one of categories.
In the analyzed period Mashable.com generated the highest number of interactions (more than blogs number 2 and 3 combined). Businessinsider.com was the most engaging blog on Facebook, where it generated nearly 120k FB comments. It would be more than all other chosen blogs altogether, if it wasn’t for Mashable.com, which generated more than 95k comments.
The Verge and Gizmodo lead the way in terms of number of regular/onsite comments with well over 20 000 total comments each.
BusinessInsider.com was the most active blog, generating almost as many posts as blogs number 2-5 combined.
Macrumors.com was the most onsite-engaging blog with an average of 149 comments per article .
Mashable and BusinessInsider generated the majority of Facebook Likes during our analysis. Both generated about 250k fb likes. It is especially impressive for Mashable which generated more Facebok likes than BusinessInsider while generating 3 times fewer posts.
When it comes to Facebook shares, Mashable.com is the victorious blog with nearly 150k shares. Mashable.com owes its victory in this category to its high number of average Facebook Shares per article (407 comments per post).
Twitter users mostly shared articles from Mashable.com and Gizmodo.com, which generated altogether over 450k shares. In comparison, all other blogs combined generated around 440k shares.
The Los Angeles Area Fashion Industry ProfileCIT Group
Fashion remains the most under‐appreciated industry in Los Angeles, although it truly has a global reach. The mere mention of apparel manufacturing, unfortunately, can conjure up very dated images – images of sweatshops, full of minority women who operate sewing machines, next to a mountain of cut fabric, and under the eye of abusive bosses. What’s the true picture?
Why You Need Twitter for your small business. This presentation covers the basics including why Twitter can be an essential marketing tool, setting up your profile, how to Retweet, Direct Message, and more. It also covers great ways to promote your Twitter page and easy tips and tools for updating it.
Building Bridges Across Company and Community -SCALE15xNithya A. Ruff
Increasingly companies are part of the open source ecosystem and are starting new projects and contributing to projects. And community members often feel that open source is becoming more commercial and driven by companies. How can we learn to work together and coexist? What can we do to increase our understanding of each other and find common ground and bridges? We need to work together more than ever as open source grows. Come and discuss with me, idea for how we can support the continued healthy evolution and momentum of open
Learning the Lingo: Building Foundations for Successful Partnerships and Collaborations upon which Successful Systems Integrations can be Built
Carl Grant, Associate Dean, Knowledge Services & Chief Technology Officer, University of Oklahoma
The Network Mindset Trainings offer the building blocks for what a network mindset is, and how such mindsets show up in practice. There are only two sessions; Basic and/or Intermediate. The content for all the Basic sessions is the same; the content for all the Intermediate sessions is the same.
Composition and initiation of agricultural innovation platformsILRI
Presented by Iddo Dror at the SEARCA Forum-workshop on Platforms, Rural Advisory Services, and Knowledge Management: Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development, Los Banos, 17-19 May 2016
The Role of Foundations in Open Source ProjectsJavier Canovas
Slides of the presentation of the paper titled "The Role of Foundations in Open Source Projects", accepted in the Software Engineering in Society track of the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE).
June 4, 2015 | 11am-12pm Pacific
Session Description:
We are launching a webinar series to provide a space for practitioners and researchers in both the leadership and network development areas to connect and learn from each other. Often these groups are not connected and we want to build awareness and even collaboration across the research – practice divide. We will focus on the intersection of leadership and network development. After clarifying the various ways in which leadership and networks intersect, we will consider the following questions: what does it mean for people in networks who see the need to be more intentional about developing leadership, and what does it mean for leadership development practitioners to design and deliver programs that better equip their participants to effectively utilize network strategies and tools.
This first webinar will start to explore the intersection between leadership and networks, and introduce a relational perspective of leadership. The three partnering organizations will discuss concrete examples and ideas from their work, and then participants will have a chance to ask questions.
Register for this first webinar with The Center for Creative Leadership, NYU/Wagner, and The Leadership Learning Community
Similar to ENGAGE: How Funders Can Support and Leverage Networks for Social Impact (20)
The Transforming Health Systems (THS) initiative was one of The Rockefeller Foundation’s largest global health initiatives. Aligned with the Foundation’s mission to promote the well-being of humanity, THS aimed to improve the health status and financial resilience of poor and otherwise vulnerable populations through activities promoting improved health systems performance and the expansion of universal health coverage (UHC).
This report synthesizes findings from a five-year, multicomponent evaluation of the THS initiative. The objectives of the evaluation were to assess i) the effectiveness of the three core strategies – global advocacy, regional networks, and country-level investments – employed under THS to advance progress toward UHC in low- and middle-income countries in four focus countries, ii) the overall effectiveness and influence of the initiative, and iii) the Foundation’s legacy in the UHC arena. A key component of the evaluation was to document lessons learned from achievements and challenges to inform the development of future initiatives at the Foundation.
Overall, the evaluation found the THS initiative to be successful in its efforts to activate a global movement to accelerate progress toward UHC. The Foundation catalyzed and shaped the global UHC movement and, ultimately, influenced the inclusion of UHC in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the post-2015 agenda. It also created enduring cross-learning platforms and tools to support country progress toward the SDGs’ UHC targets. Although THS gained less traction in advancing UHC through its focus country investments, its success in making UHC a global development target and creating networks and coalitions to support UHC reform efforts in LMICs will likely have country-level impacts for years to come.
This guide is designed for program officers to use in their work related to networks, coalitions, and other relationship-based structures as part of their initiatives, program strategies, and outcomes. It offers a set of core components that make up the basics of strategizing, implementing, and sustaining inter-organizational relationships and structures. You can work through the guide from beginning to end or jump to specific issues with which you might be struggling. Every component suggests concrete “actions” or questions that a program officer can apply.
Putting “Impact” at the Center of Impact Investing: A Case Study of How Green...The Rockefeller Foundation
More than ever before, investors are looking to put their money where their values are. As a result, impact investing has burgeoned into an over $100 billion industry in just over ten years. But how do impact investors know whether their money is truly having a positive impact on people and
the planet? How can these investors better manage their results, and use material data – both positive and negative – about social and environmental performance to maximize their impact?
This case study documents the journey of one organization, Green Canopy Homes – and its financing arm, Green Canopy Capital – toward more systematically thinking about, measuring, and managing its impact. While developing the impact thesis for its resource-efficient homes, Green Canopy applied a theory of change tool, an approach common within the social sector, to systematically map the causal pathways between its strategies and intended impact. Its rationale for adopting this approach was simple: use it to maximize impact, and understand and minimize possible harm. The tool also effectively positioned Green Canopy to measure and communicate about its social and environmental performance, and to make client-centric adaptations to its business.
The case study provides an illuminating example of how investors can adapt theory of change to serve their impact management needs. By demonstrating the relevance and transferability of this tool for articulating, measuring, and managing impact, the hope is that this case study can contribute to strengthening other investors’ approaches, in turn contributing to building the evidence base for the “impact” of impact investments.
Electricity is one of the most important drivers of socio-economic development, yet up to 250 million Indians are not connected to the national grid, and the majority of rural consumers have grossly unreliable power supply. More than solar lanterns and home systems that power a few lights and fans, among the most efficient ways to provide reliable electricity in remote areas is through local mini-grids. India has several run by energy service companies and usually funded by philanthropic capital.
Most of these enterprises have not been able to scale-up their impact meaningfully because the risk of the national grid entering their markets can render their mini-grid unviable. Rather than seeing “grid versus mini-grid” as a policy choice, Beyond Off-Grid: Integrating Mini-Grids with India’s Evolving Electricity System explores ways we can encourage more of both: to have the grid operate in partnership with a network of distributed mini-grids to accelerate electrification.
What does the roadmap for this ‘interconnection’ of our energy system look like? How can we leverage both government and private investment? What are the different interconnection models and their commercial, technical and regulatory implications? Where do mini-grids go from here? This timely report – commissioned by the Asha Impact Trust in collaboration with Shakti Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation – provides a multi-layered perspective to address these questions based on extensive research, wide-ranging policymaker interactions, and our investment experience evaluating mini-grid operators.
We cannot achieve significant poverty reduction without stimulating electricity consumption, which fuels income-generating activities in the modern economy. In India, about 237 million people have little or no access to reliable electricity -- more than 90% of them live in rural areas. This severely constrains economic opportunities. Addressing this chronic problem requires going beyond simply expanding the government grid.
Mini-grids have emerged as a viable solution to complement and integrate with the national grid, and can support the government in achieving its ‘Power for All’ vision. The Rockefeller Foundation’s Smart Power for Rural Development (SPRD) initiative is the first to pursue the creation of a mini-grid sector that is robust enough to fuel commercial enterprises and drive economic development beyond just one village. Smart Power India (SPI), which leads the SPRD initiative in India, has proven that mini-grids can be swiftly deployed to deliver reliable power, and has likewise demonstrated that mini-grids can spur economic activity needed to help people lift themselves out of poverty.
This issue of Smart Power Connect, published after the hundredth village was connected to Smart Power, explores the efforts, success stories, and challenges faced in SPI’s mini-grid journey to date. With insights from government agencies, policy experts, energy service companies, investors and mini-grid customers themselves, this publication provides a glimpse into the potential of the mini-grids to transform the energy sector – and how rural communities are embracing and utilizing clean, reliable and adequate power to improve their lives.
Today, nearly 240 million Indians lack access to reliable electricity, and 90 percent of them live in rural areas. Despite the government’s ambitious plans to accelerate universal electrification by 2018, challenges remain in providing reliable and sufficient energy to the last mile. Distributed renewable energy (DRE) solutions, and in particular mini-grids, have emerged as a reliable complement to the government’s electrification programs by providing rural areas with access to reliable and high-quality electricity at a much faster pace. The growth of the DRE sector will be an important fillip to the last-mile challenge.
Smart Power India (SPI) is an organization that implements The Rockefeller Foundation’s Smart Power for Rural Development (SPRD) to build viable and commercially oriented mini-grid ecosystems in India. This report explains the Smart Power mini-grid model and explores the drivers of success. Analyzing early data from a cohort of the 106 Smart Power mini-grids operational as of 2017, SPI provides data on commercial performance as well as recommendations to further accelerate the rural mini-grid business.
Encouragingly, the report reveals that the 23 top-cohort plants have an average unit-level profit margin of approximately 30% after the first year of operations. It also highlights that villages receiving electricity from SPRD mini-grids show early signs of social and economic impact (also see Understanding the Impact of Rural Electrification.) SPI has observed that site selection, a strong focus on operations, support for demand generation and marketing optimized for rural customers, are critical to the continued improvement of mini-grid operations. Finally, the report provides recommendations to address external challenges such as the need for increased financing, stronger policy support and further technological innovation.
A successful philanthropic initiative depends not just on the strategy pursued – but also on how that strategy is implemented. Implementation considerations can vary significantly based on the shape of an initiative – starting a new organization can look very different than investing in a portfolio of existing organizations. This report looks at four “models” for implementing initiatives. These don’t represent an exhaustive set of potential models to pursue, or even the most high potential models. Rather, these are four examples of models, each of which has significant potential for impact when chosen wisely and executed well. The report outlines the considerations involved in choosing to pursue each of these models and findings on how to implement them, drawn from real-world experience.
Globally, over 1 billion people still live without electricity. Roughly 237 million of these people are in India. Smart Power for Rural Development (SPRD) is a $75 million initiative aimed at accelerating development in India’s least electrified states. Through the deployment of decentralized renewable energy mini-grids, SPRD works to accelerate the growth of rural economies, while at the same time improving the lives and livelihoods of poor and marginalized families and communities. With access to energy, individuals, households, and communities can generate economic opportunities and enhance their quality of life. Understanding the Impact of Rural Electrification has generated significant insights on how SPRD is having an impact on the lives of villagers, and what more is needed to sustain, grow, and scale these gains. We’ve learned that households and businesses are slowly but surely moving up the energy ladder; enterprises are expanding and new ones are being created as a result of energy access, and women are feeling safer and more mobile after dark. In this report, we also introduce the innovative GDP+ approach which, which quantifies and measures the social, economic and environmental gains of access to electricity in GDP terms. The initial findings here show that SPRD villages experienced an $18.50 per capita increase in GDP+.
The information in this brief is drawn from a case study of the JLN conducted by Mathematica Policy Research in consultation with the THS team and the Evaluation Office of The Rockefeller Foundation. The study, completed in 2016, was undertaken to assess the extent to which the JLN had achieved its goal of becoming a country-driven, sustainable network helping to advance progress toward universal health coverage in low- and middle-income countries.
The Joint Learning Network (JLN) is a key innovation and central part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s efforts to promote universal health coverage (UHC) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) under its Transforming Health Systems (THS) initiative (2009-2017). Launched in 2010, the JLN is a country-led, global learning network that connects practitioners around the globe, in order to advance knowledge and learning about approaches to accelerate country progress toward UHC. The JLN currently includes 27 member countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America that engage in multilateral workshops, country learning exchanges, and virtual dialogues to share experiences and develop tools to support the design and implementation of UHC-oriented reforms. The core vehicles for shared learning and resource development under the JLN are technical initiatives, which are managed by several technical partners and organized around key levers for reaching UHC objectives.
With 62.5 million tons of food wasted in the United States each year, there is much work to be done to
bring about substantial changes in the food industry that will create a more efficient food system and
help preserve the environment. This guide describes promising opportunities to reduce food waste
in three areas—packaging, food retail, and home kitchens—and discusses a number of solutions that
could be piloted, validated, and scaled to significantly reduce food waste in America.
National Disaster Resilience Competition's Resilience Academies - Emerging In...The Rockefeller Foundation
In 2015 The Rockefeller Foundation partnered with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to launch the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC)
Resilience Academies. Recognizing the salient need to infuse resilience thinking into HUD’s NDRC, these Academies were established to expose state and local governments to new approaches for protecting and promoting the long-term well-being and safety of their communities. A recent independent evaluation of the Academies has provided instructive insights about what works in efforts to build innovative resilience capacity.
Following its successful partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) post–Hurricane Sandy Rebuild by Design competition, The Rockefeller Foundation launched the Resilience Academies and Capacity-Building Initiative. Designed to support HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), the Academies and the Initiative provide eligible state, county, and municipal governments with subject-matter expertise and lessons from the Foundation’s years of on-the-ground disaster recovery programming and mitigation planning. Further, the Foundation hoped to assist these key players in moving global knowledge and resources to meet homegrown needs.
In December 2016, The Rockefeller Foundation’s African Regional Office hosted the Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Convening in Nairobi, Kenya. Over 150 delegates and 40 speakers participated, sharing insights, examples, and engaging in debate and discussion on why and how ‘resilience’ can enhance Africa’s ongoing development.
Launched in 2008, the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) Initiative aimed to catalyze attention, funding, and action for building the climate change resilience of vulnerable cities and people in Asia. Given that current estimates forecast that about 55 percent of Asia’s population will be living in urban centers by 2030, the ACCCRN Initiative is built on the premise that cities can take actions to build climate resilience – including drainage and flood management, ecosystem strengthening,
increasing awareness, and disease control – which can greatly improve the lives of poor and vulnerable people, not just in times of shock or stress, but every day.
At the time the initiative was launched, the concept of urban resilience and models for implementing it were nascent and emergent. ACCCRN proved to be an important experiment and “learning lab” for the Foundation and its grantees and partners to build capacity in cities to better understand and implement resilience solutions to the often devastating shocks and stresses of climate change. The initiative was effective in the initial 10 ACCCRN cities and, later, in an additional 40 cities.
As part of our Foundation-wide commitment to learning and accountability to our grantees, partners and stakeholders, we undertook an independent evaluation of the work of the initiative in 2014 to assess what worked well and not so well in ACCCRN. Conducted by Verulam Associates and ITAD, who also conducted a mid-term evaluation of the ACCCRN Initiative in 2011, this summative evaluation highlights successes, but also provides an important moment to reflect on the challenges we faced and on what we can do better or differently going forward.
As part of its overall mission of promoting the well-being of humanity throughout the world, The Rockefeller Foundation developed the goal of advancing inclusive economies. The framing of this goal is deliberate: the word inclusive stresses the need to overcome disadvantage while the choice of economies versus growth suggests the need to consider all dimensions of economic life. This executive summary outlines efforts to develop a framework to better understand and measure the characteristics of an inclusive economy. It includes:
• The evolution of the concept of an inclusive economy
• Key lessons learned from an analysis of indicator initiatives
related to measuring an inclusive economy
• A recommended indicator framework composed of 5 broad
characteristics, 15 sub-categories, and 57 indicators
• Implications for future work
For more details, a full report is available at:
inclusiveeconomies.org
Situating the Next Generation of Impact Measurement and Evaluation for Impact...The Rockefeller Foundation
Situating the Next Generation of Impact Measurement and Evaluation for Impact Investing contends that measurement practices need to evolve by borrowing from the strengths of both private business and social sector evaluation. Suggesting that an impact thesis is a crucial anchor for impact measurement strategies, the paper offers several measurement approaches in use today. The ‘next generation’ of impact measurement and evaluation must stem from a commitment of impact investors to strengthen evidence for their social returns alongside the evidence for financial returns.
The goal of the CEO & Gender Media Audit was to understand the media coverage of CEOs in various situations and determine if there are differences in the way male and female CEOs are covered.
Jennifer Schaus and Associates hosts a complimentary webinar series on The FAR in 2024. Join the webinars on Wednesdays and Fridays at noon, eastern.
Recordings are on YouTube and the company website.
https://www.youtube.com/@jenniferschaus/videos
ZGB - The Role of Generative AI in Government transformation.pdfSaeed Al Dhaheri
This keynote was presented during the the 7th edition of the UAE Hackathon 2024. It highlights the role of AI and Generative AI in addressing government transformation to achieve zero government bureaucracy
Presentation by Jared Jageler, David Adler, Noelia Duchovny, and Evan Herrnstadt, analysts in CBO’s Microeconomic Studies and Health Analysis Divisions, at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Summer Conference.
Jennifer Schaus and Associates hosts a complimentary webinar series on The FAR in 2024. Join the webinars on Wednesdays and Fridays at noon, eastern.
Recordings are on YouTube and the company website.
https://www.youtube.com/@jenniferschaus/videos
Understanding the Challenges of Street ChildrenSERUDS INDIA
By raising awareness, providing support, advocating for change, and offering assistance to children in need, individuals can play a crucial role in improving the lives of street children and helping them realize their full potential
Donate Us
https://serudsindia.org/how-individuals-can-support-street-children-in-india/
#donatefororphan, #donateforhomelesschildren, #childeducation, #ngochildeducation, #donateforeducation, #donationforchildeducation, #sponsorforpoorchild, #sponsororphanage #sponsororphanchild, #donation, #education, #charity, #educationforchild, #seruds, #kurnool, #joyhome
What is the point of small housing associations.pptxPaul Smith
Given the small scale of housing associations and their relative high cost per home what is the point of them and how do we justify their continued existance
This session provides a comprehensive overview of the latest updates to the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (commonly known as the Uniform Guidance) outlined in the 2 CFR 200.
With a focus on the 2024 revisions issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), participants will gain insight into the key changes affecting federal grant recipients. The session will delve into critical regulatory updates, providing attendees with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate and comply with the evolving landscape of federal grant management.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the rationale behind the 2024 updates to the Uniform Guidance outlined in 2 CFR 200, and their implications for federal grant recipients.
- Identify the key changes and revisions introduced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the 2024 edition of 2 CFR 200.
- Gain proficiency in applying the updated regulations to ensure compliance with federal grant requirements and avoid potential audit findings.
- Develop strategies for effectively implementing the new guidelines within the grant management processes of their respective organizations, fostering efficiency and accountability in federal grant administration.
ENGAGE: How Funders Can Support and Leverage Networks for Social Impact
1.
2. ENGAGE
How Funders Can Support and Leverage
Networks for Social Impact
When to use this print edition
ENGAGE is a tool that was designed to be used on the web. This print edition is a
compilation of every page from the online tool, making it easy to print all or part of the
content on paper for distribution in settings where a hard copy is preferable such as
meetings or conferences. However, since the material was designed primarily for use on
a browser (whether on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone), the best experience will be had
in that format.
What else you can find online
The online version of ENGAGE, found at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/engage,
contains a number of interactive features in addition to the text of this print edition:
• Contextual links between the “story sketches” and related sections
• A “reading list” of bookmarked pages
• Page-specific citation of sources
• Keyword search
The copyright to this material is owned by The Rockefeller Foundation. For copyright terms, please see
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/terms-of-use/.
3. What could a network help me achieve?
• Why are networks relevant to my work?
• Is my challenge a good fit for engaging with a social impact network?
• What are the alternatives to a network?
• What network design would be the most useful?
• What can a network do?
What could I do for a network?
• What type of network funder could I be?
• What forms of financial and backbone support do networks need?
• What forms of support will I provide?
• Am I ready to work with a network—and is my organization ready?
• How do I exit a network?
How do I get started?
• How do I gauge the potential for starting or joining a network?
• What tools can help me support and lead a network?
• Checklist: Am I clear on my intention for getting involved in a network?
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contents
How to use this guide 5
NOTE: These numbers are the pages of the PDF.
You will see different page numbers from the
website in the lower-right corner.
4. Story sketches
About this guide
Sources
• The Rockefeller Foundation: Smoothing the path to universal health coverage
• The Rockefeller Foundation: Building a backbone to accelerate impact investing
• The Rockefeller Foundation: Bridging disciplines to launch a new field in biology
• StriveTogether: Taking a place-based network to national scale
• The Rockefeller Foundation: A long-term bet on scientific breakthrough
• Reimagine Learning: Bridging silos and creating a new vision for learning
• RE-AMP: Networking climate advocates across eight states to cut carbon emissions
• Pioneers in Justice: Enabling social justice leaders to transform their organizations
• Energy Action Network: Finding the path to renewable energy in Vermont
• The Rockefeller Foundation: Containing pandemics by sharing information
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16. 6/29/2015 What are the alternatives to a network? |
http://engage.rockefellerfoundation.org/whatcouldanetworkhelpmeachieve/whatarethealternativestoanetwork/ 3/4
Support a different kind of partnerhip
p
(Many of the principles from this guide apply to this work as well.)
I N F O R M A L L Y C O N N C T P A I R S O R T R I O S
Quite frequently there are opportunities for learning and collaboration among two or three
organizations that have no need to expand to a larger group. These can happen on their
own, they can be catalyzed by conversation at a convening, or they can form out of an
introduction that you make intentionally. Two ways to encourage and sustain these
collaborations are by offering small grants to start new collaborations or by providing a
prize for collaborations that begin on their own.
S U P P O R T A N A S S O C I A T I O N
These groups are organized mainly to foster connections and provide their members with
various services. In associations, members don’t necessarily develop powerful, enduring
relationships and collaborations and the association staff, not the members, do most of the
work.
S U P P O R T A C O A L I T I O N O R A L L I A N C
These are campaign-specific temporary alignments of organizations formed to achieve a
specific objective that usually disband as soon as the campaign is completed. While they
are networks in the general sense of the term, their short lifespan means that it is less
necessary to define their function and participants’ roles as clearly as in the social impact
networks discussed here.
S U P P O R T A P U L I C - P R I V A T P A R T N R S H I P
These partnerships are formed between government and private sector organizations to
deliver specific services or benefits. They are often targeted narrowly, such as developing a
particular drug to fight a single disease, and usually don’t engage the full set of
stakeholders that affect the issue, such as the potential drug’s distribution system.
36. 6/29/2015 What type of network funder could I be? |
http://engage.rockefellerfoundation.org/whatcouldidoforanetwork/whattypeofnetworkfundercouldibe/ 4/4
H O W D O I A N T I C I P A T W H A T T Y P O F F U N D R I H A V T H A I L I T Y T O
C O M ?
You need to reckon with the upper limit of how much you can afford to provide of your funding,
time, relationships, facilities, and other resources, and over what timeframe. We spoke with several
funders where the foundation began funding a network, saw it develop in a very promising direction,
and decided to re-allocate most of its portfolio and human capital to provide the network with the
necessary support. But not every grantmaker has the ability to provide that type of single-minded
commitment. What level of support makes sense for you typically depends on a number of factors:
Your capacity: How much time and creative energy do you have to commit to the network—
now and over the duration of time you expect to be involved?
The relative priority of this grant: How high would this investment rank if you had to force-
rank your grants from most to least important?
The strength of the network’s leadership: Does the network already have a well-developed
ability to keep itself moving forward and is it developing in a positive direction? If so, would
the network be better off building its own sense of independence at a healthy distance? If
not, is it likely to continue needing heavy engagement from you or can you picture it
developing stronger leadership in the near future?
Your organization’s readiness to work with networks: Does your organization understand the
value of supporting a network, the mindset required to work with them effectively (as
described in this section), and the need to stay flexible in responding to its needs?
So little i known at the tart [of a network], I think doing a work
plan i a little ackward. I think ou have to get into it and
dicover what the work i efore ou can make a plan.
STFAN NACHUK, TH ROCKFLLR FOUNDATION
Our involvement and commitment varie. It depend on how the
network fit into the igger picture of what we’re tring to
accomplih and how mature the network i.
RINDA GANGULY, TH ROCKFLLR FOUNDATION