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Landscape Mapping of Civil Society Digital Security in West Africa

April 19, 2023

In today's digital age, organisations are constantly exposed to various digital security threats. For civil society organisations (CSOs) in West Africa, the threat of cyber-attacks and data breaches is a real and growing concern. This study aims to shed light on the digital security challenges facing CSOs in West Africa, and to provide recommendations on how they can better protect themselves against digital security threats. By examining the most common threats, the exposure of CSOs to these threats, their preparedness to respond, and the effectiveness of national and organisational level policies, the study provides an in-depth analysis of the digital security landscape in West Africa.

Michigan Statewide Nonprofit Leadership Census 2022

December 7, 2022

The Michigan Statewide Nonprofit Leadership Census identifies the percentage of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) nonprofit leaders statewide to provide a clear understanding of the racial and ethnic composition of staff members and boards at nonprofits. The report, which identifies equity issues facing different communities across the state, focused on six regions: Lakeshore/West Michigan, Metro Detroit, Mid-State/Central Michigan, Southern Central Michigan, Tip of the Mitt, and the Upper Peninsula.Key findings include:Metro Detroit reported the highest percentage of BIPOC-led organizations (38%), while Tip of the Mitt reported the lowest (1%).The budget range reported for most responding nonprofit organizations was concentrated in two groups: more than $50,000 but less than $250,000 or $1 million to less than $5 million.At the state level, the majority of nonprofits (93%) reported only one executive director who is more likely to be at least one of the following characteristics: White, female, aged 45–64 years old, and one who has served in the leadership role for no more than five years.Reporting at least one BIPOC executive director was associated with more organizations reporting multiple executive directors, younger directors, as well as a higher percentage of BIPOC members on its board and staff.Housing was determined to be a pressing equity issue in Michigan. Notably, BIPOC-led organizations are much more likely to choose race and ethnicity as one of their community's most pressing equity issues.

The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations: 2022 Edition

September 20, 2022

For 25 years, the Council on Foundations and Candid have partnered on studies of globally focused giving by U.S. foundations. The new edition of The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations dives into 2016-2019 data to provide the latest perspective on how the nation's foundations are supporting critical efforts to improve health outcomes, address climate change, offer access to education, ensure human rights, and engage with a wide array of other global priorities. Through interviews with a selection of global funders, Global Giving also offers insights on how foundations are addressing the critical challenges of our time and where they see signs of optimism and opportunity going forward.Key Report FindingsU.S. private and community foundations included in Candid's Foundation 1000 dataset awarded globally focused grants totaling $8 billion in 2019—close to four times the approximately $2.2 billion awarded in 2002.Health accounted for 49 percent of global grant dollars.The largest shares of funding focused on the Sub-Saharan Africa (25.1%) and Asia & Pacific (17.7%) regions.Among the many issue areas supported by foundations, human rights has realized the fastest growth in global support in recent years. In the 2016-2019 period, human rights reached 11 percent of global foundation grant dollars, up from less than 7 percent in the 2011-2015 period.Roughly 13 percent of U.S. foundations' global grant dollars went directly to organizations based in the country where programs were implemented in the 2016-2019 period, up marginally from approximately 12 percent in the 2011-2015 period.Funding by Foundation 1000 foundations for efforts to counter or mitigate the impact of climate change in the United States and globally totaled nearly $1.8 billion in the 2016-2019 period, up from $1.3 billion in the 2011-2015 period.The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation accounted for 44% of global giving by U.S. foundations from 2016 to 2019.

Local leadership driving progress on the Sustainable Development Goals

June 24, 2022

As the halfway point to 2030 nears, the importance of cities and local leaders to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has become clear. A global, city-led movement is going beyond the confines of SDG 11 to demonstrate leadership on all aspects of the SDGs, characterized by innovation, action, and progress on display, as local leaders adapt the framework to their own scale and context.As mayors and city officials translate lofty aspirations of the goals into the practical aspects of governing, they are using the SDGs to assess gaps in services and outcomes, create new policy interventions, and integrate a sustainable development mindset into city operations and regular processes of decisionmaking.This report builds on the experiences of the SDG Leadership Cities Network hosted by the Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings to take stock of the key role of city and local governments in driving local and global progress, and the effects of their SDG commitments on improving their operations, effectiveness, and impact.Innovations by cities are tangibly demonstrating the interdependencies among the SDGs. The COVID-19 crisis and the urgency to build an equitable and sustainable recovery reinforced the need for advancing progress on multiple issues simultaneously. Analysis based on the SDGs has offered cities a vision for the form that a deliberate departure from "business as usual" may take, resulting in a transformation of public life.At the center of this movement, city leadership is undergoing a mindset shift, going beyond reporting on targets and goals to building a shared local commitment that enables collaboration across sectors and jurisdictions. As a common language and set of shared ambitions, the SDGs can act as connective tissue that provide a basis for new forms of partnership and bring together various sources of leadership for joint action from the public and private sectors, involving a wide range of stakeholders important to the vibrancy of cities.

Financial Facts: SEED OK Child Development Accounts at Age 14

June 6, 2022

This Fact Sheet presents financial outcomes as of December 31, 2021, when children in the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment were about 14 years old. SEED OK is a large-scale policy test of universal, automatic, and progressive Child Development Accounts (CDAs). The essential feature of the CDA in SEED OK is a state-owned Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan (OK 529) account, which was automatically opened for newborns in late 2007 with an initial deposit of $1,000 and which has now grown to about $2,300.

Community Foundations in Europe : State of the Field 2022

January 1, 2022

This report presents the results of extensive field research based on consultation with national support organisations across Europe. It offers an overview of the community foundation field in Europe along with detailed profiles which provide information on the historical development and current state of the field in each country. This highlights the diversity that exists within Europe, in respect of the context but also in the form and function of  community foundations.Based on national-level understanding of the characteristics of a community foundation our research shows there are 851 in 22 countries with 32 infrastructure organisations serving the field.A directory of community foundations and its online map are available online and complement this analysis: https://www.communityfoundations.eu/directory.html

Thinking globally, acting locally: How community foundations are contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

November 19, 2021

This report looks at how the place-based community foundation model aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Using examples from across the community foundation network, it demonstrates how the work of local organisations, the long-term support of donors, and a focus on place are key to driving sustainable change in communities. It shows how community foundations use their place-based knowledge and relationships to convene different local actors around the Goals.As well as providing examples of how our place-based work fits within a global context, the report also calls for more sustainable funding practices such as multi-year funding and increased flexibility from donors and grant-makers. In addition to this, the report shows how the SDGs can be used by civil society to help communicate its huge impact and to leverage further support from the private sector as it increasingly turns to the SDGs to measure social impact.The report is relevant to funders, philanthropists, corporates, local charities, and other institutions that are invested in seeing sustainable social change in communities across the UK.

Mismatched: Philanthropy’s Response to the Call for Racial Justice

October 16, 2021

Mismatched: Philanthropy's Response to the Call for Racial Justice is the most comprehensive assessment of racial equity and racial justice funding to date, providing a detailed analysis of funding from 2015–2018 and a preliminary analysis for 2020. Written by Malkia Devich Cyril, Lyle Matthew Kan, Ben Francisco Maulbeck, and Lori Villarosa, the report examines trends, contradictions, and divergences in funding for both racial equity and racial justice work.

Putting Data to Work for Young People: A Framework for Measurement, Continuous Improvement, and Equitable Systems

July 13, 2021

Systems that coordinate afterschool, summer and other out-of-school-time programming communitywide have emerged in a number of U.S. cities and counties over the last 15 years or so. The organizations that oversee these systems increasingly recognize the need for periodic pulse checks to evaluate their efforts and inform improvements. But what, exactly, should these organizations assess and how?In 2014, a framework to help answer that was developed by Every Hour Counts, a national coalition of citywide organizations that seeks to increase access to high-quality learning opportunities, particularly for students from underserved communities. This framework is a research-informed update of the tool.The heart of the framework is 11 desired outcomes of system work, some or all of which system leaders might want to measure progress toward, depending on local needs and circumstances. Five are directly related to overall system work and include whether a common goal for afterschool has been established. Three regard the efforts of programs, stressing, for instance, that they use management practices that enhance program quality. And three are related to young people—the rate of youth participation in programs, among them.For each of the 11 items, the tool describes indicators signaling progress toward the outcome; the type of data that can be collected for the indicators; ideas for working with the data; and ways to interpret and use the findings. A feature of the update from the 2014 version of the framework is a set of racial equity questions for each outcome, exploring matters ranging from whether system decision-making is inclusive to whether programs distribute high-quality offerings equitably. 

Putting Data to Work for Young People Guidebook: A Guidebook for the Every Hour Counts Framework for Measurement, Continuous Improvement, and Equitable Systems

July 13, 2021

Systems that coordinate afterschool, summer and other out-of-school-time programming communitywide have emerged in a number of U.S. cities and counties over the last 15 years or so. The organizations that oversee these systems increasingly recognize the need for periodic pulse checks to evaluate their efforts and inform improvements. But what, exactly, should these organizations assess and how?In 2014, a framework to help answer that was developed by Every Hour Counts, a national coalition of citywide organizations that seeks to increase access to high-quality learning opportunities, particularly for students from underserved communities. This framework is a research-informed update of the tool.The heart of the framework is 11 desired outcomes of system work, some or all of which system leaders might want to measure progress toward, depending on local needs and circumstances. Five are directly related to overall system work and include whether a common goal for afterschool has been established. Three regard the efforts of programs, stressing, for instance, that they use management practices that enhance program quality. And three are related to young people—the rate of youth participation in programs, among them.For each of the 11 items, the tool describes indicators signaling progress toward the outcome; the type of data that can be collected for the indicators; ideas for working with the data; and ways to interpret and use the findings. A feature of the update from the 2014 version of the framework is a set of racial equity questions for each outcome, exploring matters ranging from whether system decision-making is inclusive to whether programs distribute high-quality offerings equitably. 

The Growth of Children's Savings Accounts in the Midwest

April 19, 2021

In recent years, there has been a surge in Children's Savings Account (CSA) programs being planned and launched in Midwest communities by state and local governments, community foundations, and nonprofit organizations. This is no accident. Since 2017, Heartland Alliance has led targeted efforts to promote the spread of CSA programs in the Midwest through a collaborative regional approach.This report documents the development of the Midwest CSA Consortium, outlines the growth of CSAs in the region since the start of the Consortium in January 2017 through the end of 2020, and spotlights the diversity and variation in CSA programs throughout the region.

State of the Community Foundation Field in Europe 2020

January 1, 2021

Building an understanding of the shape and work of the community foundation field is important not only in raising awareness of its scale and scope, for those operating within it and those with an interest in local development, but also to inform further development of the field.In an exceptional year for all societies worldwide, ECFI has conducted its biennial assessment of the community foundation (CF) field in Europe. This report has been informed by a survey of community foundations support organisations (CFSOs) and intelligence gathered through our ongoing engagement with the field.This report provides a snapshot of the field, highlights changes and trends, and identifies some key issues relevant to its further development. There are reflections on the role that community foundations played in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but also on how this impacted on the community foundations themselves, and how this has altered their thinking and strategies.The analysis of community foundations support organisations (CFSOs) differentiates them by type and shows how this essential part of the field has developed. The work of community foundations support organisations is described and there is a focus on two important areas – what they did differently following the outbreak of Covid-19, and how they are supporting the field in respect of embracing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Conclusions are drawn from the analysis of the field which will inform ECFI's work which aims to strengthen and promote the community foundation movement in Europe.