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Leveraging Partnerships and Data to Improve Rural Health and Well-Being: A Guidebook for Rural Practitioners

October 13, 2023

Rural communities face many health challenges, often related to structural barriers such as limited access to health care. Targeted services and programs can improve rural health and well-being but require strong partnerships and committed funding. Additionally, good data is necessary to identify problems and track how well new programs are working. This guidebook provides ideas and examples for rural stakeholders and communities who want to improve rural health and well-being by building partnerships, implementing innovative service models, and leveraging data.This guidebook may be useful to three groups:Rural community and economic development specialists who work on improving local economies and social well-being. They may finance or build housing or support systems delivering water, sewer, or broadband internet services to communities. They may also finance and assist local businesses and community spaces like schools and libraries and may want to learn how to focus more on health.Rural health services professionals who help prevent health problems and address urgent health needs. These medical experts may be looking for different partners and models to work closely with other community stakeholder groups and actors to address health needs.Funders focused on improving rural health who may be interested in learning about promising health models and partnerships that they could potentially invest in to help meet their funding goals.The guidebook covers the following topics:making a general case about rural health needs to policymakers and funders, including the challenges and opportunities in meeting these needsidentifying potential local partners for improving rural health and well-beingconsidering service models for rural programs or communitiesmeasuring progress to understand if programs are achieving desired goalsfinding and using the best data to identify problems and track outcomesThis guidebook also includes recommended resources for more in-depth information on these topics.

Reducing poverty without community displacement: Indicators of inclusive prosperity in U.S. neighborhoods

September 13, 2022

If you live in a U.S. city, you are probably only a few miles away from a neighborhood with concentrated poverty—and there's a good chance that you are even closer.Neighborhoods with concentrated poverty are defined as census tracts where at least 30% of residents live in poor households. They are found in every medium and large metropolitan area in the United States. It does not matter what region a city is in, nor does it matter if local and state leaders are Democrats or Republicans. The presence of these residential areas is universal.Around one in 15 people in the United States lives in a neighborhood with concentrated poverty—equal to over 20 million people in total. This includes nearly one in five Black people and one in eight Latino or Hispanic people.Previous research has shown that places with high rates of poverty are deeply harmful. People who grow up in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty earn less money in early adulthood and are incarcerated far more often. Children born in these areas are projected to die 5.7 years earlier than those in other neighborhoods.Leaders need better solutions to assist these areas. Fortunately, in recent years, new data and advanced analytical tools have emerged that can offer new insights about these places. This report takes advantage of these opportunities to share three findings demonstrating that positive change is possible.

Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter? A National Study of Philanthropic Practice, 2014

November 20, 2014

Grantmakers recognize the value of supporting effective, well-led organizations -- strong organizations create meaningful changes in the world. To help us understand whether we are making progress in supporting nonprofits in ways that allow them to be successful, GEO conducts field research to track trends in grantmaker practice. In short, we want to know: is grantmaking getting smarter? GEO's 2014 study highlights some important shifts in how grantmakers support nonprofit results, but also reveals where we're falling short. To help inform this study, we convened a nonprofit task force and feature the perspective of nonprofit leaders throughout the report to talk about the impact that smarter grantmaking practices have on their work.

Impact Investing 2.0: The Way Forward

November 4, 2013

"Impact Investing 2.0: The Way Forward – Insight from 12 Outstanding Funds", created in partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University and Impact Assets, identifies twelve high-performing funds that have seen both financial and social returns on their investments. This report is designed to be a resource for the broad community interested in the future of impact investing, but especially for impact investing practitioners – those fund managers, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers and advisors creating and managing new and existing funds and working hard to achieve successful social and financial performance.

From Potential to Action: Bringing Social Impact Bonds to the U.S.

May 15, 2012

Examines the structure, benefits, stakeholders, and potential for and economics of social impact bonds in the areas of homelessness and criminal justice, including meaningful savings, proven interventions, and capacity, with a focus on juvenile justice.

Struggling to Stay Afloat: Negative Equity in Communities of Color in the Chicago Six County Region

March 22, 2012

The following analysis examines patterns of negative equity in communities of different racial and ethnic compositions in the Chicago six county region. It combines 2011 data on negative equity in Chicago region ZIP codes with U.S. Census data on the racial/ethnic composition of ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA).

Reframing the Conversation: Expanding the Impact of Grantees: How Do We Build the Capacity of Nonprofits to Evaluate, Learn and Improve?

December 13, 2011

Outlines ways to boost nonprofit organizations' capacity to systematically collect, analyze, and learn from data, including helping link program goals to evaluation questions and underwriting the costs of new technology and evaluation skills training.

Reframing the Conversation: How Can Grantmakers Aggregate Resources to Grow Impact?

September 30, 2011

Outlines ways for grantmakers to provide nonprofit organizations with growth capital collaboratively, including through capital aggregation, pooled funding to intermediaries, and strategic co-funding, as well as organizational assistance beyond grants.

Reframing the Conversation: How Can Grantmakers Support Readiness to Scale Impact?

September 30, 2011

Outlines elements of success in supporting readiness to scale: assess with grantees the potential for growth as well as alternatives, engage in intensive learning via business planning to clarify strategic priorities, and provide non-financial assistance.

Reframing the Conversation: How Does Financial Sustainability Relate to Growth - and What Can Grantmakers Do to Support It?

September 30, 2011

Outlines what is needed for nonprofit financial sustainability. Suggests that grantmakers determine the type of support needed based on a financial analysis; provide sizable, predictable, and flexible funding; and once sustainable, provide growth capital.

The Landscape of Recession: Unemployment and Safety Net Services Across Urban and Suburban America

July 7, 2011

Analyzes metropolitan-area increases in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients and the unemployed between December 2007 and December 2010 and traits of the hardest-hit areas, including community type and population density.

Reframing the Conversation: How Do We Approach Impact and Evaluation in the Context of Scale?

June 15, 2011

Outlines how decentralizing decision making, ownership, and expertise and increasing both grantmakers' and grantees' network effectiveness can help build relationships, combine complementary resources, and scaling social change across entire systems.