Achieving The Rockefeller Foundation’s goals to build resilience and advance inclusive economies requires moving beyond traditional approaches to problem-solving. New ways
of thinking and working are needed in order to have impact at scale. The Rockefeller
Foundation Global Fellowship Program on Social Innovation was designed to enable
leaders to innovate in order to address the underlying causes of complex social and
environmental challenges. With two successive cohorts of Fellowships now complete and
a third underway, the timing is right to reflect on what the Foundation is learning about
building individual and institutional capacity to innovate and drive systems change.
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 purpose of this guide is to introduce a promising approach to surfacing insights and supporting innovative thinking within a field in order to explore new and better paths to impact.
Insights, a product of the ongoing work of The Rockefeller Foundation’s strategic research team, identifies compelling and emerging problem trends and areas of dynamism where there might be opportunities for intervention.
The increasing complexity of development, coupled with the widening range of public, nonprofit, and private sector actors and the demand for more timely feedback, has challenged the utility of conventional approaches to M&E in many development contexts. Though emerging ICTs offer promise, the methodological rigor of tech-enabled M&E has sometimes been questioned and viewed as unreliable in contemporary evaluation debates.
Despite this broad reluctance, M&E innovators are already experimenting in this new space. By reflecting on ways in which these innovators have begun to navigate new territory, and by exploring the great potential for technology to further transform and advance traditional evaluation methods, this paper aims to highlight the current state of tech-enabled M&E while also maintaining a critical perspective which recognizes the limitations and inherent risks which evaluators should remain mindful of when engaging in this new and exciting space.
In addition to providing financial support for the paper, The Rockefeller Foundation supported the M&E Tech Conference and Deep Dive in the fall of 2014 to gather M&E practitioners, technology developers, and leadership from a range of organizations and institutions to discuss opportunities, challenges, and a way forward in strengthening capacity in the area of tech-enabled M&E.
Scientists and activists concerned about the future of human society and the planet have pointed to the urgent need for what they term sustainability transitions (Clark 2001; Raskin et al. 2002). In other words, due to the complex, systemic, and interrelated nature of the serious social, economic, and environmental problems confronting us, we need entirely new forms of solutions. Clearly, we humans must learn to think differently about our complex world and to work together in unusual and very strategic new ways. We need to more fully see and understand the systems within which we all exist so that we can learn to identify and create conditions for social innovation.
Final Evaluation: The Rockefeller Foundation's Program-Related Investments Po...The Rockefeller Foundation
In 2013, The Rockefeller Foundation funded an independent evaluation of 12 years of PRIs, including 18 transactions totaling $23.9 million deployed both domestically and internationally. The resulting report assesses the portfolio's social and financial performance, as well as opportunities to refine the PRI program strategy and align it with the Foundation's focus areas and grantmaking programs. It also considers the Foundation's contributions to the larger impact investing ecosystem.
Few could argue that stortelling is a powerful tool to inspire action and change, and to influence thought leaders and decision makers. The shape and delivery of stories has also shifted dramatically in the digital era. Long-form narrative and conventionalism journalism now share a stage with messages 140 characters or images that disappear in seconds after they are opened. There have never been more ways to reach audiences, but it's also never been more difficult to really reach them.
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 purpose of this guide is to introduce a promising approach to surfacing insights and supporting innovative thinking within a field in order to explore new and better paths to impact.
Insights, a product of the ongoing work of The Rockefeller Foundation’s strategic research team, identifies compelling and emerging problem trends and areas of dynamism where there might be opportunities for intervention.
The increasing complexity of development, coupled with the widening range of public, nonprofit, and private sector actors and the demand for more timely feedback, has challenged the utility of conventional approaches to M&E in many development contexts. Though emerging ICTs offer promise, the methodological rigor of tech-enabled M&E has sometimes been questioned and viewed as unreliable in contemporary evaluation debates.
Despite this broad reluctance, M&E innovators are already experimenting in this new space. By reflecting on ways in which these innovators have begun to navigate new territory, and by exploring the great potential for technology to further transform and advance traditional evaluation methods, this paper aims to highlight the current state of tech-enabled M&E while also maintaining a critical perspective which recognizes the limitations and inherent risks which evaluators should remain mindful of when engaging in this new and exciting space.
In addition to providing financial support for the paper, The Rockefeller Foundation supported the M&E Tech Conference and Deep Dive in the fall of 2014 to gather M&E practitioners, technology developers, and leadership from a range of organizations and institutions to discuss opportunities, challenges, and a way forward in strengthening capacity in the area of tech-enabled M&E.
Scientists and activists concerned about the future of human society and the planet have pointed to the urgent need for what they term sustainability transitions (Clark 2001; Raskin et al. 2002). In other words, due to the complex, systemic, and interrelated nature of the serious social, economic, and environmental problems confronting us, we need entirely new forms of solutions. Clearly, we humans must learn to think differently about our complex world and to work together in unusual and very strategic new ways. We need to more fully see and understand the systems within which we all exist so that we can learn to identify and create conditions for social innovation.
Final Evaluation: The Rockefeller Foundation's Program-Related Investments Po...The Rockefeller Foundation
In 2013, The Rockefeller Foundation funded an independent evaluation of 12 years of PRIs, including 18 transactions totaling $23.9 million deployed both domestically and internationally. The resulting report assesses the portfolio's social and financial performance, as well as opportunities to refine the PRI program strategy and align it with the Foundation's focus areas and grantmaking programs. It also considers the Foundation's contributions to the larger impact investing ecosystem.
Few could argue that stortelling is a powerful tool to inspire action and change, and to influence thought leaders and decision makers. The shape and delivery of stories has also shifted dramatically in the digital era. Long-form narrative and conventionalism journalism now share a stage with messages 140 characters or images that disappear in seconds after they are opened. There have never been more ways to reach audiences, but it's also never been more difficult to really reach them.
Accelerating Impact: Exploring Best Practices, Challenges, and Innovations in...The Rockefeller Foundation
Effective accelerators play many roles—educator, mentor, and funder, among others—in helping impact enterprises solve complex social problems. This report explores how accelerators and incubators support impact enterprises to better understand the barriers to sustained enterprise development and their ability to achieve scalable impact.
Rebuild by Design has established a small global working group on the design and politics of resiliency. This group is looking at—and assisting in shaping—how cities and regions around the world incorporate design into resiliency approaches, initiatives, and policy. Its first collective task is a collection of essays addressing two questions: First, identifying how design thinking is being incorporated and translated into political processes and understanding the obstacles that prevent design insights from informing policy practices. Second, collecting ideas for improving these processes, so that design and politics might be better integrated.
This initial group will form the core of a larger network that we aim to build over the long run. Meanwhile, are engaging directly with existing programs and initiatives. We will not duplicate efforts, but instead use this global working group to ignite broader discussions and further collaborations.
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.
Streams of Social Impact Work: Building Bridges in a New Evaluation Era with ...The Rockefeller Foundation
This working paper addresses the gaps and opportunities between the approaches of traditional public sector and NGO program evaluation and the social impact measurement approaches of new market-oriented players.
The authors posit that a convergence of these cultures would generate enormous rewards for both constituencies. New methodologies, evaluative tools and strategic learning processes would enrich social impact work, private giving and public-private partnerships. More nimble and business-like evaluation approaches would benefit traditional evaluation players and civil society. Thus bridging the divide would contribute to the rigor and utility of methods and practices and advance the effectiveness of evaluation everywhere.
In August 2013, a multidisciplinary group gathered at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center to address the theme of “Community Resilience Through big data and Technology.” Creative and critical thinkers were selected from the technology sector, academia, the arts, humanitarian and ecological spheres. Over ten days, we explored how data could be used to help build community resilience in the face of a range of stresses — environmental, political, social and economic. Large data collection and analysis may support communities by providing them with timely feedback loops on their immediate environment. However, the collection and use of data can also create new vulnerabilities and risks, by enabling discriminating against individuals, skewing evidence, and creating dependencies on centralized infrastructure that may increase a system’s vulnerability. After analyzing these risks and opportunities, we developed a framework to help guide the effective use of data for building community-driven resilience. In this framework, we propose six domains: ethics, governance, science, technology, place and sociocultural context. We believe that by considering all six domains together, organizations can safeguard against predictable failures by exposing project weaknesses from the outset rather than in hindsight.
This report presents the findings of an evaluation commissioned by the Evaluation Office of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation Initiative on Equitable and Sustainable Transportation (TRA). The evaluation, conducted by TCC Group from October 2011 to April 2012, focused principally on efforts to build state capacity and attain state and regional policy changes. An evaluation of Foundation efforts focused on federal transportation reform was completed in early 2012.
This report touches on the relationship between some of the state strategy work and its relationship to federal reform.
The transportation initiative team articulated four key evaluation questions:
• What is working in the state strategy?
• What are promising practices that have evolved from the state grants?
• What should next steps be for the state evaluation?
• What has been missed by our grantmaking strategy?
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.
Over 300 stakeholders from 12 countries representing the private sector, government, training institutions, academia, philanthropy, and youth attended the Impact Sourcing (IS) Conference held on November 13th and 14th at the Polo Club in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The event was hosted by Rockefeller Foundation Africa regional office Managing Director Mamadou Biteye and the Digital Jobs Africa Team, and was officially opened by Dr. Edmund Katiti, director of the Africa Program for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
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.
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.
Impact investing can help solve major social and environmental problems in West Africa, leveraging new sources of capital in places that lack sufficient government resources and development aid to address development challenges. A recent report by the Rockefeller Foundation and JP Morgan (2010) suggests that impact investments are emerging as an alternative asset class that could grow to represent a global market of US$ 500 billiona in five to ten years. The implications for West Africa are exciting. Now is the time to deepen our understanding, increase awareness, and foster dialogue on impact investing in the region.
Impact investing—making investments to generate positive impact beyond financial return—is not new to West Africa. However, few investors in the region identify themselves as impact investors or are familiar with the concept in those terms. This lack of awareness, coupled with other substantive challenges, could slow the development of the impact investment industry in the region. This report is the first comprehensive analysis ever conducted on the impact investing industry in West Africa. It aims to: (1) map the landscape of impact investing supply and demand in West Africa; (2) identify the substantive challenges that hamper the growth of the industry and recommend solutions for overcoming them; and (3) serve as a starting point for regional dialogue and local network development activities among impact investors.
“Why Information Matters: a foundation for resilience” is
part of Embracing Change: The Critical Role of Information,
funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to
support the Internews’ Center for Innovation and Learning’s
research on the role of information ecosystems in building
resilience. Many thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation, and
especially to Sundaa Bridgett-Jones, Associate Director,
International Development, for vital input and support.
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.
Capturing Learning From Tech Innovation Hubs Across AfricaLoren Treisman
This report summarises discussions with staff from technology innovation hubs across seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It explores sustainability, programming, working with the private sector and civil society, impact and advice for funders.
Oklahoma City: The Birthplace of Strategic Doing Ed Morrison
25 years after helping to launch Oklahoma City's rebirth, I returned to celebrate. Why? Because OKC is the birthplace of Strategic Doing.
From 1993-2000, I helped guide the civic leadership in the rebirth of their city. In the process, I worked on a new model of complex collaboration. It turns out we can build these complex collaborations by following a discipline of simple rules..
In my presentation, I explained how I took the lessons we learned from OKC and applied them in a wide range of really complex situations.
Now it’s an open source discipline we are spreading across the world with a growing network of universities.
My path with OKC's leadership is crossing again, and we have some exciting announcements coming.
Stay tuned.
----
You can get more on the backstory in our book: https://lnkd.in/eqZSc5H
This document summarises the discussions held by a group of funders and other supporters of innovation spaces internationally. The event took place in London on 24th September 2015 and was hosted by The British Council, Hivos and The Indigo Trust.
We explored factors which contribute to their success and failure and the challenges of monitoring impact, before exploring the following themes in breakout sessions:
1) Hub leadership
2) Community building and skills development
3) Financial sustainability
4) Hub communities addressing civic/social issues
We hope that this discussion sparks greater strategic thinking and collaborative programming amongst philanthropists, the corporate sector and other stakeholders.
Bonner High-Impact Initiative: Being Architects and Leaders of ChangeBonner Foundation
Bonner High-Impact Initiative: Being Architects and Leaders of Change: an overview of key aspects of the process, especially for team leaders and teams.
Accelerating Impact: Exploring Best Practices, Challenges, and Innovations in...The Rockefeller Foundation
Effective accelerators play many roles—educator, mentor, and funder, among others—in helping impact enterprises solve complex social problems. This report explores how accelerators and incubators support impact enterprises to better understand the barriers to sustained enterprise development and their ability to achieve scalable impact.
Rebuild by Design has established a small global working group on the design and politics of resiliency. This group is looking at—and assisting in shaping—how cities and regions around the world incorporate design into resiliency approaches, initiatives, and policy. Its first collective task is a collection of essays addressing two questions: First, identifying how design thinking is being incorporated and translated into political processes and understanding the obstacles that prevent design insights from informing policy practices. Second, collecting ideas for improving these processes, so that design and politics might be better integrated.
This initial group will form the core of a larger network that we aim to build over the long run. Meanwhile, are engaging directly with existing programs and initiatives. We will not duplicate efforts, but instead use this global working group to ignite broader discussions and further collaborations.
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.
Streams of Social Impact Work: Building Bridges in a New Evaluation Era with ...The Rockefeller Foundation
This working paper addresses the gaps and opportunities between the approaches of traditional public sector and NGO program evaluation and the social impact measurement approaches of new market-oriented players.
The authors posit that a convergence of these cultures would generate enormous rewards for both constituencies. New methodologies, evaluative tools and strategic learning processes would enrich social impact work, private giving and public-private partnerships. More nimble and business-like evaluation approaches would benefit traditional evaluation players and civil society. Thus bridging the divide would contribute to the rigor and utility of methods and practices and advance the effectiveness of evaluation everywhere.
In August 2013, a multidisciplinary group gathered at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center to address the theme of “Community Resilience Through big data and Technology.” Creative and critical thinkers were selected from the technology sector, academia, the arts, humanitarian and ecological spheres. Over ten days, we explored how data could be used to help build community resilience in the face of a range of stresses — environmental, political, social and economic. Large data collection and analysis may support communities by providing them with timely feedback loops on their immediate environment. However, the collection and use of data can also create new vulnerabilities and risks, by enabling discriminating against individuals, skewing evidence, and creating dependencies on centralized infrastructure that may increase a system’s vulnerability. After analyzing these risks and opportunities, we developed a framework to help guide the effective use of data for building community-driven resilience. In this framework, we propose six domains: ethics, governance, science, technology, place and sociocultural context. We believe that by considering all six domains together, organizations can safeguard against predictable failures by exposing project weaknesses from the outset rather than in hindsight.
This report presents the findings of an evaluation commissioned by the Evaluation Office of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation Initiative on Equitable and Sustainable Transportation (TRA). The evaluation, conducted by TCC Group from October 2011 to April 2012, focused principally on efforts to build state capacity and attain state and regional policy changes. An evaluation of Foundation efforts focused on federal transportation reform was completed in early 2012.
This report touches on the relationship between some of the state strategy work and its relationship to federal reform.
The transportation initiative team articulated four key evaluation questions:
• What is working in the state strategy?
• What are promising practices that have evolved from the state grants?
• What should next steps be for the state evaluation?
• What has been missed by our grantmaking strategy?
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.
Over 300 stakeholders from 12 countries representing the private sector, government, training institutions, academia, philanthropy, and youth attended the Impact Sourcing (IS) Conference held on November 13th and 14th at the Polo Club in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The event was hosted by Rockefeller Foundation Africa regional office Managing Director Mamadou Biteye and the Digital Jobs Africa Team, and was officially opened by Dr. Edmund Katiti, director of the Africa Program for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
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.
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.
Impact investing can help solve major social and environmental problems in West Africa, leveraging new sources of capital in places that lack sufficient government resources and development aid to address development challenges. A recent report by the Rockefeller Foundation and JP Morgan (2010) suggests that impact investments are emerging as an alternative asset class that could grow to represent a global market of US$ 500 billiona in five to ten years. The implications for West Africa are exciting. Now is the time to deepen our understanding, increase awareness, and foster dialogue on impact investing in the region.
Impact investing—making investments to generate positive impact beyond financial return—is not new to West Africa. However, few investors in the region identify themselves as impact investors or are familiar with the concept in those terms. This lack of awareness, coupled with other substantive challenges, could slow the development of the impact investment industry in the region. This report is the first comprehensive analysis ever conducted on the impact investing industry in West Africa. It aims to: (1) map the landscape of impact investing supply and demand in West Africa; (2) identify the substantive challenges that hamper the growth of the industry and recommend solutions for overcoming them; and (3) serve as a starting point for regional dialogue and local network development activities among impact investors.
“Why Information Matters: a foundation for resilience” is
part of Embracing Change: The Critical Role of Information,
funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to
support the Internews’ Center for Innovation and Learning’s
research on the role of information ecosystems in building
resilience. Many thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation, and
especially to Sundaa Bridgett-Jones, Associate Director,
International Development, for vital input and support.
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.
Capturing Learning From Tech Innovation Hubs Across AfricaLoren Treisman
This report summarises discussions with staff from technology innovation hubs across seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It explores sustainability, programming, working with the private sector and civil society, impact and advice for funders.
Oklahoma City: The Birthplace of Strategic Doing Ed Morrison
25 years after helping to launch Oklahoma City's rebirth, I returned to celebrate. Why? Because OKC is the birthplace of Strategic Doing.
From 1993-2000, I helped guide the civic leadership in the rebirth of their city. In the process, I worked on a new model of complex collaboration. It turns out we can build these complex collaborations by following a discipline of simple rules..
In my presentation, I explained how I took the lessons we learned from OKC and applied them in a wide range of really complex situations.
Now it’s an open source discipline we are spreading across the world with a growing network of universities.
My path with OKC's leadership is crossing again, and we have some exciting announcements coming.
Stay tuned.
----
You can get more on the backstory in our book: https://lnkd.in/eqZSc5H
This document summarises the discussions held by a group of funders and other supporters of innovation spaces internationally. The event took place in London on 24th September 2015 and was hosted by The British Council, Hivos and The Indigo Trust.
We explored factors which contribute to their success and failure and the challenges of monitoring impact, before exploring the following themes in breakout sessions:
1) Hub leadership
2) Community building and skills development
3) Financial sustainability
4) Hub communities addressing civic/social issues
We hope that this discussion sparks greater strategic thinking and collaborative programming amongst philanthropists, the corporate sector and other stakeholders.
Bonner High-Impact Initiative: Being Architects and Leaders of ChangeBonner Foundation
Bonner High-Impact Initiative: Being Architects and Leaders of Change: an overview of key aspects of the process, especially for team leaders and teams.
Your Prospectus requires that you write about the significance of th.docxtawnyataylor528
Your Prospectus requires that you write about the significance of the research—the “so what?” question. What original contribution will this study make? How will it affect professional practice or other practical application, and how can findings lead to positive social change?
Research results often have social change implications and make a difference in the world. Choosing to conduct research on an area or topic that can do so suggests that you are attempting to be the kind of researcher whose intellectual pursuits are altruistic. Note that one of the required sections of your Dissertation is the implications of your research findings for fostering positive social change. As you design your research plan, identifying implications for social change, it is critical that you examine any related ethical considerations to these social change efforts.
Majchrzak and Markus (2014) write of positive social change resulting from systemic policy research findings, in the sense that it “involves both evidence and meaning to create outcomes that help to change the world” (p. 2). In order to do this, it “requires people to take actions, observe the consequences of those actions, and then change their actions based on feedback” (pp. 2–3), or “learn by doing.” Of course, policy analysis is only one type of research in public policy and administration. Even so, Majchrzak and Markus continue, “We know that it takes passion to change the world, but it takes more than passion to make the world a better place. It takes critical thinking, evidence, meaning, and careful value judgments” (p. 9).
“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish.
They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.”
(Bill Drayton, CEO, chair and founder of Ashoka)
The factors described by Majchrzak and Markus characterize social entrepreneurship as a means to positive social change. Social entrepreneurs maintain a vision of how to improve a given social condition, transforming systems to create lasting, systemic, and sustainable social impact. Their focus is on the social mission of creating transformative change for complex social problems, such as poverty, illiteracy, lack of affordable housing, economic disparities, human rights abuses, challenges to peace and security, and environmental destruction, to name a few.
Given this vision, they create and apply ideas, strategies, and actions to promote the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, family systems, neighborhoods, communities, organizations, institutions, cultures, and societies—locally, nationally, and globally. As a route to social innovation and social justice, social entrepreneurship is a form of leadership that maximizes the social return on efforts to change the world, while fundamentally and permanently changing the way problems are addressed on a global scale. Social entrepreneurs employ a wide variety of creative approaches and practices from diverse acad.
Overview Our team has been immersed in ‘whole .docxgertrudebellgrove
Overview
Our team has been immersed in ‘whole system change’ for the past few years
in Ontario, Canada; California; Australia and New Zealand; and elsewhere. Our main
mode of learning is to go from practice to theory, and then back and forth to obtain
more specific insights about how to lead and participate in transformative change in
schools and school systems.
In this workshop we take the best of these insights from our most recent
publications: Stratosphere, The Professional Capital of Teachers, The Principal,
Freedom to Change, and Coherence and integrate the ideas into a single set of
learnings.
The specific objectives for participants are:
1. To learn to take initiative on what we call 'Freedom to Change’.
2. To Understand and be able to use the ‘Coherence Framework’.
3. To analyze your current situation and to identify action strategies fro making
improvements.
4. Overall to gain insights into ‘leadership in a digital age’.
We have organized this session around six modules:
Module I Freedom From Change 1-4
Module II Focusing Direction 5-10
Module III Cultivating Collaborative Cultures 11-14
Module IV Deepening Learning 15-22
Module V Securing Accountability 23-30
Module VI Freedom To Change 31-32
References 33
Please feel free to reproduce and use the
material in this booklet with your staff and others.
2015
Freedom From Change
1
Shifting to
the Right Drivers
Right Wrong
§ Capacity building
§ Collaborative work
§ Pedagogy
§ Systemness
§ Accountability
§ Individual teacher and
leadership quality
§ Technology
§ Fragmented strategies
Freedom:
If you could make one
change in your school or
system what would it be?
What obstacles stand in
your way?
What would you change? What are the obstacles?
Trio Talk:
§ Meet up with two colleagues.
§ Share your choice and rationale.
§ What were the similarities and differences in the choices?
Module 1
2
The Concepts of Freedom § Freedom to is getting rid of the constraints.
§ Freedom from is figuring
out what to do when you
become more liberated.
Seeking Coherence § Within your table read the seven quotes from Coherence and circle
the one you like the best.
§ Go around the table and see who selected which quotes.
§ As a group discuss what ‘coherence’ means.
Coherence: The Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts, and Systems
Fullan, M., & Quinn, J. ( 2015). Corwin & Ontario Principals’ Council.
# Quote
1. There is only one way to achieve greater coherence, and that is through purposeful action and interaction,
working on capacity, clarity, precision of practice, transparency, monitoring of progress, and continuous
correction. All of this requires the right mixture of “pressure and support”: the press for progress within
supportive and focused cultures. p. 2
2. Coher ...
RECODE, an initiative lead by McConnell Foundation, and UpSocial are researching how Canadian post-secondary institutions could adapt to more adequately address community needs.
Cluster evaluation: Learning to complete the virtuous circle! - James WilsonOrkestra
Interesting article about cluster evaluation written by James Wilson in collaboration with Madeline Smith and Emily Wise for the TCI Network's 'Shared Values' publications that was distributed at the European Conference in Bulgaria (March 2018).
Organisations are increasingly realising the power of networks to create the greatest impact for society. Working collaboratively with a network of partners can increase your reach, generate efficiencies and stimulate innovation.
Yet, approaches to working in networks vary widely and each approach has a unique set of associated challenges. In our latest Briefing Paper, Aleron brings together the insight of expert practitioners in the field to bring clarity to the complex area of network working in the social sector.
Organisations are increasingly realising the power of networks to create the greatest impact for society. Working collaboratively with a network of partners can increase your reach, generate efficiencies and stimulate innovation.
Yet, approaches to working in networks vary widely and each approach has a unique set of associated challenges. In our latest Briefing Paper, Aleron brings together the insight of expert practitioners in the field to bring clarity to the complex area of network working in the social sector.
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+.
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.
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.
Equity and Inclusive Growth from a Development Perspective is essential reading for development and evaluation practitioners. It provides a concise history and critical examination of the concepts related to growth, poverty, and equity. These three foundational elements of contemporary development theory and practice are at the root of The Rockefeller Foundation’s movement toward advancing inclusive economies and building resilience.
The paper offers many insights about the measurement and evaluation of programs. It illuminates the debate surrounding ways to assess well-being beyond GDP. It covers the many ways to approach the measurement of poverty and the most commonly used indexes. Finally, it examines the important distinction between equity and equality and the policy implications of pursuing equity.
Assessing Market-Based Solutions: Lessons from Evaluating a Youth Employment ...The Rockefeller Foundation
Creating employment opportunities for youth is a priority for many countries. How can these opportunities – increasingly situated within market-based approaches to development – generate and sustain positive employment and social outcomes for individuals, their families and communities? This paper reports on an evaluation of a Rockefeller Foundation initiative that provided instructive lessons on how to assess youth employment and digital jobs programs that embed market-based principles.
In 2013, in response to the opportunities presented by Africa’s rapidly growing youth population and the ubiquity of information and communications technologies across the continent, The Rockefeller Foundation launched its Digital Jobs Africa initiative. The initiative aims to enable young people to access jobs by providing them with in-demand technology-related and other employability skills. Now just past its two-year mark, the Foundation is taking stock of the rich learning that has emerged from the initiative.
The Rockefeller Foundation has long recognized the importance of meaningful engagement of the private sector in addressing many of the world’s most complex problems. While many social sector leaders understand that engaging the private sector matters, far fewer understand how to do so, or the key questions one should consider before starting down this path of cross-sector collaboration. For instance: Why would a network want to include a company? Or conversely, why would a company want to participate in a network focused on social impact? Can social impact efforts deliver business value? What makes network relationships durable? And ultimately, what are the different needs around accountability, leadership, governance and mindset? To answer questions such as these, The Foundation and our partners at Monitor Institute, a part of Deloitte Consulting LLP, have created “PARTICIPATE: The power of involving business in social impact networks”—a handbook for social change leaders aspiring to effectively engage the private sector as authentic participants in the pursuit of social impact.
In 2015, The Rockefeller Foundation collaborated with several partners to begin developing incentive-based mechanisms to address competition for freshwater, and to bring human water use back in balance with the water needs of freshwater ecosystems in order to build long-term resilience. The early solutions that emerged, and the wider lessons from the group’s work, are captured in this report.
It’s no secret that women have historically faced greater barriers than men when it comes to fully participating in the economy. Across geographies and income levels, disparities between men and women persist in the form of pay gaps, uneven opportunities for advancement, and unbalanced representation in important decision-making.
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
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
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.
Russian anarchist and anti-war movement in the third year of full-scale warAntti Rautiainen
Anarchist group ANA Regensburg hosted my online-presentation on 16th of May 2024, in which I discussed tactics of anti-war activism in Russia, and reasons why the anti-war movement has not been able to make an impact to change the course of events yet. Cases of anarchists repressed for anti-war activities are presented, as well as strategies of support for political prisoners, and modest successes in supporting their struggles.
Thumbnail picture is by MediaZona, you may read their report on anti-war arson attacks in Russia here: https://en.zona.media/article/2022/10/13/burn-map
Links:
Autonomous Action
http://Avtonom.org
Anarchist Black Cross Moscow
http://Avtonom.org/abc
Solidarity Zone
https://t.me/solidarity_zone
Memorial
https://memopzk.org/, https://t.me/pzk_memorial
OVD-Info
https://en.ovdinfo.org/antiwar-ovd-info-guide
RosUznik
https://rosuznik.org/
Uznik Online
http://uznikonline.tilda.ws/
Russian Reader
https://therussianreader.com/
ABC Irkutsk
https://abc38.noblogs.org/
Send mail to prisoners from abroad:
http://Prisonmail.online
YouTube: https://youtu.be/c5nSOdU48O8
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/libertarianlifecoach/episodes/Russian-anarchist-and-anti-war-movement-in-the-third-year-of-full-scale-war-e2k8ai4
Many ways to support street children.pptxSERUDS 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
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
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
Building Capacity for Innovation and Systems Change: Innovation Fellowship Program Emerging Insights Brief
1. THE
RockefellerFoundation
MONITORING&EVALUATIONOFFICE
Building capacity for innovation
and systems change
Achieving The Rockefeller Foundation’s goals to build resilience and advance inclusive
economies requires moving beyond traditional approaches to problem solving. New ways
of thinking and working are needed in order to have impact at scale. The Rockefeller
Foundation Global Fellowship Program on Social Innovation was designed to enable
leaders to innovate in order to address the underlying causes of complex social and
environmental challenges. With two successive cohorts of Fellowships now complete and
a third underway, the timing is right to reflect on what the Foundation is learning about
building individual and institutional capacity to innovate and drive systems change.
The 21st century has seen the rise of many complex
social and environmental challenges. Traditional
approachesareinsufficienttosolvethesechallenges;
new and creative solutions are required to bring
about sustained, transformative change.
To test its ability to build the capacity of social
sector leaders to catalyze innovation in the global
south, The Rockefeller Foundation launched its
Global Fellowship Program on Social Innovation
in 2013.1
From its inception, the program sought
to expose well-positioned social change agents
to innovation and systems thinking, encouraging
them to adopt new approaches to execute their
visions for change—within their organizations and
1
At the time of its launch in 2013, the program was referred to as
“Rockefeller Foundation Global Fellowship on Social Innovation and
Resilience.”
beyond. In addition, by connecting leaders across
sectors and geographies to work together to tackle
challenges, the Foundation sought to advance its
goals of building resilience and advancing inclusive
economies.
Lessons from The Rockefeller Foundation’s
Global Fellowship Program on Social Innovation
Emerging Insights Brief
SEPTEMBER 2016
2. 2
Sharing lessons for greater impact
Two cohorts of fellows have graduated from the
Fellowship Program and a third is currently in progress.
Independent assessments of the program have also
been completed and a critical mass of information is
now available about what is working and what is not
for promoting innovation capacity. This information has
and will continue to inform the Foundation’s work. Given
the program’s focus on building capacity specifically in
the areas of innovation and systems change, combined
with its unique fellowship-based model, lessons learned
may also be relevant to others with a similar stake in
promoting innovation and systems thinking globally.
This brief summarizes what the Foundation has learned
through its Global Fellowship Program on Social
Innovation to date. Much of the information contained in
this brief was provided by independent evaluators from
the Governance Network and University of Waterloo, who
were engaged by the Foundation to generate evidence in
support of program learning and course correction.
What have we learned?
The Fellowship Program is effectively
targeting a diverse group of global leaders
Foundation grantees and partners from the private
sector, social enterprises, development agencies, and
non-governmental and philanthropic organizations
working across a diverse range of issue areas, such as
impact investing, economic growth, sustainability, and
disaster relief – to name a few – are enthusiastic about
the opportunity to learn more about complexity and
to apply systems thinking to support their work. Each
year, fellows are carefully selected by the Foundation
based on their alignment with its programming and
commitment to fundamentally altering the systems in
which they work. The program has consistently been
able to attract fellows with a high tolerance for risk and
deep appreciation for collaboration. In total, 60 people
– 55 percent of them females – have been enrolled as
fellows since 2013. Fellows work in over twenty countries
across five continents.
Fellows are self-identifying as “system
entrepreneurs”
After participating in the program, many fellows see
themselves in a new light – as system entrepreneurs.
System entrepreneurs are those who work not only to
solve problems, but to address their underlying causes
and the structures and relationships that sustain
them. These are individuals who use their position
of leadership within their system to shift resources,
challenge power relationships, and navigate at multiple
scales. A fellow from the inaugural year commented “I’m
thinking systems… it’s not enough to run a successful
organization; I need to influence the system I work
in too,” while another noted that “I see my role in the
larger system and my work as a system change maker.”
Developing this new identity has helped fellows surface
and interrogate their own assumptions and approaches
to problem solving. Being a system entrepreneur means
thinking about one’s own role in a completely different
way.
Fellows need both theoretical and practical
learning opportunities
The Fellowship Program’s curriculum sought
to strike a balance between theoretical and
practical content. There has been demand
among fellows for robust analytical frameworks
for thinking about systems change and then
concrete tools for operationalizing these
ideas. To maximize fellows’ engagement,
The Adaptive Cycle
3. 3
the program curriculum
mixed expert-led lecture-
style sessions with more
interactive and dynamic
ones. Finally, establishing
an environment conducive to
candid conversation and honesty
contributes to success. Facilitators deliberately create
a “safe space” for learning and model behaviors for
generating openness and motivating teams.
The very notion of a “fellowship” is integral
Unlike traditional training programs, which focus
primarily on knowledge and skills development, the
Global Fellowship Program on Social Innovation goes
one step further to also emphasize network building
and collaboration. Fellows report that they are “part
of a community of practice with whom [they] can be
accountable and bounce off ideas.” One fellow reported
that “to develop a bond in a short period where
[co-fellows] provide you support – and
at the same time provide you
with constructive criticism
without judging – is of
tremendous value.”
Framing this program
as a fellowship nurtures
a sense of community
and commonality among
participants. This has enabled them to relate to one
another’s challenges and develop a commitment to work
together toward ambitious goals.
Fellows bring what they have learned back to
their organizations
Many fellows report changes to their behavior, including
engaging colleagues in new ways of thinking, fostering
improved dialogue, applying dynamic analysis and
planningtoolssuchastheadaptivecycle,2
demonstrating
commitment to learning, and forging new internal and
external partnerships. Some
fellows have challenged
their organizations’
theories of change
and surfaced implicit
beliefs and norms,
resulting in new
insights and ideas
for improved practice.
Others are working to
apply multiple lenses to understand systems more fully
and strategically. However, while fellows feel confident
thinking strategically and seeing the bigger picture, they
2
The adaptive cycle is a framework that describes the four phases that
social and ecological systems need to go through to strengthen their
capacity for resilience and growth. It provides the mechanism through
which innovations can reach a stage of maturation, yet keep abreast of
changing needs.
Fellow Spotlight: Bijal Brahmbhatt, Director of Mahila Housing Trust
Bijal, a 2014-2015 fellow, leads Mahila Housing Trust, an organization that strives to
empower women who live in slums to improve their communities and build local resilience.
Before Bijal participated in the Fellowship Program, her organization focused its efforts
on directly changing the lives of its beneficiaries. According to Bijal, after learning more
about complexity and systems thinking, the organization “changed [its] strategy – and
expanded [its focus] to systemic change and networking at scale.” Mahila Housing Trust has
since brokered partnerships with new private sector companies and nurtured an internal
organizational culture to support systems change.
It is expected that Mahila Housing Trust’s new innovative community-based programming approach will change the
lives of more than 125,000 families in South Asia—giving them the tools and structures they need to design, develop,
and implement their own solutions to climate problems in their communities.
4. 4
sometimes face challenges putting ideas into practice
within the context of their organizations and systems.
Maintaining momentum between modules is
challenging
Since modules are months apart, deliberate effort needs
to be made to sustain momentum between them. This is
particularly challenging when dealing with such a diverse
group of high-profile individuals, representing different
countries, languages, and sectors. The Foundation is
testing different approaches for stimulating continued
learning throughout the year. Initial evaluation findings
indicate, however, that informal communication is
happening on an ongoing basis with fellows – including
those from different cohorts. Fellows are routinely
sharing updates and news with one another and have
established e-groups to facilitate discussion
about their work.
from Mercy Corps in Niger have worked together to
install an early warning system in Niger. These are just
two examples of the many collaborations that have been
catalyzed through the program.
Measuring institutional and systems change
is a long-term endeavor
Measuring short-terms outcomes of the Fellowship
Program, including fellows’ abilities to ask strategic
questions, formulate long-term strategies for
innovation, and develop plans for scaling programs, is
relatively straightforward. However, as the Foundation
has learned through its history of investing in
individuals who have the potential to create lasting
impact - from American Playwrights to “Rocky Docs”-
the further down the results chain one goes, the longer
it takes to observe and measure changes. As but one
example, The Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation
Leadership Program trained five cohorts of diverse US
fellows in the late 1990s. Fifteen years later, one of the
inaugural fellows was
elected Mayor of
Los Angeles, the youngest
in the state’s history. A second fellow
masterminded seven successful state-level
campaigns for marriage equality. It is therefore
expected that the full impacts of the Fellowship
Program will surface over the longer term.
Moving Forward: Lessons for the
Social Innovation Community
Emphasize soft skills. Empathy, negotiation, and
listening skills are necessary for building networks
and facilitating complex conversations among diverse
stakeholders. By building these skills, individuals can be
better prepared to broker new partnerships and work
productively with others.
Connect content to fellows’ context. Translating
new mindsets and knowledge into contextually-
appropriate innovative practice is challenging. By
“I feel more motivated to deal with
imminent change in our organization,
cause disruption where necessary, and
exercise more influence in strategic
matters.” – 2014/2015 Fellow
Unlikely partnerships present opportunity
Ordinarily, partnerships are formed between like-minded
individuals and organizations. However, fellows have
noted that the program has helped them realize that
they need to establish relationships with new and
unlikely partners in order to move the needle on systems
change. Fellows Francisco José Noguera, a consultant
formerly with Social Innovations Lab in Colombia, and
Amy Chester from the U.S.-based Rebuild By Design
have been collaborating on design-based resilience
competitions as a result of participating in the Fellowship
Program together. Similarly, fellows Lina Useche from
Brazilian Aliança Empreendedora and Ahmet Dawalak
5. 5
increasing the diversity in the faculty, leveraging alumni
fellows, and sharing more case studies from the global
south, it may be possible to make the content even
more relatable and applicable. In countries or cultures
where language about social innovation does not exist,
creativity is required to communicate these concepts
effectively.
Manage expectations. It should be made clear what
fellows can expect to get out of the program, and what is
expected of them in return. Similarly, stakeholders should
be mindful that the full impacts of interventions will not
be seen for many years, and that impacts are highly
dependent on factors that are outside the control of the
program.
Prioritize quality and diversity. Fellows have expressed
appreciation for the diversity of people represented in
the program. Gender balance and representation from
various sectors and countries across five continents has
enriched fellows’ learning experience. Fellows have also
shared that “[b]ecause the Foundation hand-selects
the fellows, there’s a high quality of influential people
who can help make change. So the connections are very
powerful.”
Adapt as necessary. The program made significant
changes between its first, second, and third cohorts and
continues to change its agenda to meet the needs of
the fellows. The success of this program depends on its
ability to evolve in response to ever-changing contexts,
while at the same time remaining anchored in a set of
proven concepts, frameworks, and experiences.
Conclusion
The Rockefeller Foundation believes that innovation is
the key to unlocking breakthrough solutions to complex
problems. The Global Fellowship Program on Social
Innovation represents an effort by the Foundation to
build innovation capacity to help individuals and, in turn,
organizations to find the skills, tools, and mindsets to
catalyze innovation and systems change. By sharing the
learning emerging from the program, the Foundation
aims to equip those with a stake in leveraging innovation
for social good to adapt and improve their capacity
building efforts for greater impact.
For more information, please contact The Rockefeller
Foundation’s Monitoring and Evaluation Office at:
rfevaluation@rockfound.org
About The Rockefeller Foundation
For more than 100 years, The Rockefeller Foundation’s
mission has been to promote the well-being
of humanity throughout the world. Today, The
Rockefeller Foundation pursues this mission through
dual goals: advancing inclusive economies that expand
opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity, and
building resilience by helping people, communities,
and institutions prepare for, withstand, and emerge
stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses.
Monitoring and Evaluation at
The Rockefeller Foundation
Committed to supporting learning, accountability,
and performance improvements, the Foundation’s
Monitoring and Evaluation team works with staff,
grantees, and partners to monitor and evaluate the
Foundation’s pathways to impact in the short- and
long-term, and to capture lessons about what works and
what doesn’t across the Foundation’s diverse portfolio.