Exercise:
Overview
Complete after Week 2, Video 1.1 -
Philanthropic Strategy
This activity may take a considerable amount of reflection and brainstorming. Think
about your issue area, under what conditions would you feel comfortable saying, this
problem is solved? What would your issue area look like in a perfect world? At what point
of improvement in your issue area would another issue eclipse yours as being a greater
social need? After these reflections, try to answer, in one sentence, what is your mission?
Given my issue area of early childhood education in the US, I would say that this problem is solved if all children enter school ready to learn at a high level. In a perfect world, all children would have had safe, healthy, and enriching childhoods so that they are physically, emotionally, and mentally 'school ready'. My mission is to ensure that all children in the US start school ready to learn at a high level.
Exercise:
Overview
Complete after Week 2, Video 2.2 - Guest
Speaker: Alexa Culwell - Comparing
Intervention Strategies
Brainstorm and research at least five different intervention strategies that are being used
on your issue area. Be creative and feel free to brainstorm many more than five. After
comparing, researching and thinking about your personal passion, select an intervention
strategy and write down why you chose it and why you think it is the best intervention
strategy
Strategy #1 - helping parents early on. Nurse Family Partnership
Strategy #2 - having volunteers reading with preschoolers. Jumpstart
Strategy #3 - promoting for better teachers. NAEYC
Strategy #4 - building knowledge around nurturing early dev. Zero to Three
Strategy #5 - building parents as teaachers. Parents as Teachers
I don't know if I can make a judgment around the 'best' intervention strategy, because they all serve their part. We need research and knowledge, we need better policy, we need better teachers, we need parents to support their kids.
Foundations
* Brady Education Foundation - http://www.bradyeducationfoundation.org/grantsawarded.html
* Helios Education Foundation - http://www.helios.org/investment-history-helios-education-foundation.aspx
* Heising-Simons Foundation - https://www.cybergrants.com/pls/cybergrants/heisingsimons.heisingsimons_grant_search.search_page
* RGK Foundation - http://www.rgkfoundation.org/public/grants
Online Nonprofit Evaluations
https://www.myphilanthropedia.org/top-nonprofits/bay-area/early-childhood-education/2010
http://www.socialimpactexchange.org/focus/education/early-education
Articles & Blogs
http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/early_education/organizations/
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/04/17/16403/nonprofits-get-nearly-1-mil-to-train-parents-to-ad/
Experts
http://www.nea.org/home/18226.htm
http://www.edfunders.org/
http://earlychildhoodfunders.org/
I really enjoyed looking at what the foundations were choosing to fund. Lots of interesting initiatives that aren't 'normal non-profits'! Some of the online evaluation websites were good for browsing, but they seem more useful once I have a non-profit in mind that I want to research.
Pick two of your nonprofits and think about them in terms of these three criteria: 1) geography/population, 2) scale, and 3) risk. Write down what makes these two nonprofits unique for each of these criteria. Brainstorm for yourself at least two other criteria you could use to help you choose between nonprofits and write what makes the two nonprofits you wrote about previously unique for these two new criteria as well.
For myself, I'm looking for organizations that have a wider reach, preferably national. I'm looking at organizations that focus on 0-8, or anywhere in that range. For monetary funding, I'm drawn more toward proven organizations, although for volunteering, I'm drawn more to 'risky' new organizations. My personal criteria also include being research-backed and data-driven. And I think that working directly with the children, parents, or teachers is important to me - policy and research are important, but for me, I want to work with people (more important when volunteering, perhaps less important for monetary donations).
For this question, I'll look at Jumpstart and Zero to Three.
Both of these non-profits have national reach, which is important to me. Zero to Three obviously focuses more on the younger side, where as Jumpstart focuses more on 4-5 year olds. Zero to Three is more about research and policy, where as Jumpstart is about interactions with the preschoolers. Both are 'older' organizations. Because Jumpstart has a specific intervention, they have done research studies to show good short-term outcomes. Jumpstart is definitely research-backed and data-driven as well as people interactions, where as Zero to Three is less so.
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