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Co-Creation: The Public Sector Perspective

August 22, 2017

This article continues to explore the partnership between the State of Connecticut, the Connecticut Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy. These three entities have been working to coordinate their efforts toward a shared goal of establishing a statewide early childhood system, reducing the fragmented array of Connecticut's existing early childhood services and supports, and improving outcomes for young children and their families across the State.Independently and collectively, each partner continues to adopt new processes and working structures that enable the voluntary contribution of their diverse skills, expertise, and resources to create a new approach to early childhood in Connecticut. While clearly not the only constituencies working to improve outcomes for children and families throughout the state, this partnership between the public sector and the philanthropic community has resulted in important transformations within all entities involved. This paper highlights the role of the public sector within this public-private partnership, and, more specifically, the experience and perspectives of those working within state government.

A Community Foundation’s Experience Implementing and Evaluating General Operating Support

June 30, 2017

In 2013, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving began to offer unrestricted general operating support grants in response to grantees' expressed need. The foundation hired Technical Development Corp., a Boston consulting firm, to evaluate the process and implementation. This article shares early indicators of the impact of the new grantmaking approach on both grantees and the foundation. Grantee outcomes include enhanced infrastructure and financial health, continued progress on strategic plan goals, and more creative thinking about programs. Beyond the adoption of a new funding option, the decision led the foundation to modify its overall grantmaking process. The greatest challenge – which appears to be a factor across the sector – has been determining how best to capture the impact of the investment for grantees. Partnering from the outset provided data that helped both the foundation and TDC to assess the benefits of general operating support.

Metro Hartford Progress Points: What Can We Do Differently? A Look at Progress and Promise in Our Communities

July 1, 2016

Last year's report focused on access to schools, jobs, neighborhoods and the ongoing challenge of creating access to opportunity. In this year's report, we focus on five related themes consistent with those priorities. With ongoing declines in state and local resources, how can we support meaningful change consistent with these priorities?

Taking on New Roles to Address 21st Century Problems

May 1, 2016

Co-creation: Viewing Partnerships through a New Lens, provided a fresh look at public private partnerships and the collective work forged by the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy (CCP), the Connecticut Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, and the State of Connecticut (Bowie, 2016). The partnership offered the opportunity to explore co-creation as a new paradigm and lens with which to design and assess collective work, particularly when trying to achieve large-scale systems change.In employing co-creation, the partnership established new structures and adopted processes that enabled a diverse group of individuals and entities to voluntarily contribute their skills, expertise, and resources to create a state level early childhood systems approach in Connecticut. This co-creation process also resulted in important transformations within the entities involved.For CCP, it was an opportunity to explore and test a new role and working structure in direct response to the evolving needs and desires within Connecticut's philanthropic community. Over the last 47 years, CCP has functioned as a network of various types of philanthropic organizations. CCP connects grantmakers to address issues both individually and collectively, is a resource for grantmaking where funders can access critical information and services, and is a voice for philanthropy representing the philanthropic sector to key audiences (Strategic Plan, Connecticut Council for Philanthropy, 2014).Within the public-private partnership, CCP established a new working relationship with the Early Childhood Funder Collaborative and with state government, which ultimately shifted the role of CCP. This new role moved beyond offering the typical program management and administrative support and in doing so gained the ability to bring forth different perspectives and new strategies in order to strengthen philanthropy's contribution to systems change. This shift was also in alignment with, and furthered, the mission of the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy to promote and support effective philanthropy for the public good.

Co-Creation: Viewing Partnerships Through A New Lens

May 1, 2016

Collaboration remains an on-going discourse throughout the funder community, but little has been written about explorations or innovations into different ways of working collectively, beyond what was established decades ago.The Connecticut legislation calling for a greater coordination of efforts to improve early childhood outcomes explicitly invited "philanthropic organizations" to partner in the development of new policies and a systematic approach for supporting young children and families. The Connecticut Early Childhood Funder Collaborative emerged as the platform for philanthropy to do this work.Similar to other funder collective endeavors, the Collaborative and the state can claim short-term success. They not only had tangible results, but each valued their ability to coalesce to achieve those results. The difference in this effort was the melding of knowledge, networks and funding in a new paradigm. The more difficult question is whether the short-term endeavor creates the necessary conditions to sustain their efforts long enough to realize true systems change and improved outcomes for children and families.For large-scale systems change, co-creation may be a more fitting approach; it acknowledges self-interest, existing alongside shared goals and purpose, as necessary to sustain voluntary efforts. Co-creation is predicated on the notion that traditional top-down planning or decision-making should give way to a more flexible participatory structure, where diverse constituencies are invited in to collectively solve problems.Co-creation doesn't give priority to the group or the individual, but instead supports and encourages both simultaneously. In co-created endeavors, a shared identity isn't needed; members continue to work toward their own goals in pursuit of the common result. Co-creation enables individuals to work side by side, gaining an understanding of the goals, resources, and constraints that drive the behaviors of others, and adjusting accordingly to maintain a mutually beneficial gain.The partnership of the Connecticut Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, the State, and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy was not originally structured to be an example of co-creation. It does, though, possess many of the attributes of successful co-creation endeavors. Recognizing these similarities in structure and purpose holds much promise to help the public and private sectors understand not only what to sustain, but how best to organize and continue working to achieve the long-term goal.

Seizing the Moment: Realizing the Promise of Student-Centered Learning

May 1, 2016

This brief outlines policy recommendations for supporting student-centered learning at the local, state, and federal level.

Building Evaluation Capacity: Final Evaluation Report Executive Summary

August 1, 2015

The Building Evaluation Capacity (BEC) program was initiated in the fall of 2006 by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving's Nonprofit Support Program (NSP).  It was designed to give participating organizations the knowledge, skills and tools to evaluate, improve and communicate about their work.  The Class of 2015 is the gourth group of Hartford‐area nonprofit organizations to participate.  BEC is a multi‐year program that includes evaluation capacity development for selected organizations and ongoing study for participating organizations that have completed the initial evaluation capacity building work.  The evaluation capacity building training operates in two phases (phase I = initial training and evaluation project design, phase II = project implementation and continued training).  

Building Evaluation Capacity Program

August 1, 2015

The Building Evaluation Capacity (BEC) program was initiated in the fall of 2006 by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving's Nonprofit Support Program (NSP).  It was designed to give participating organizations the knowledge, skills and tools to evaluate, improve and communicate about their work.  The Class of 2015 is the fourth group of Hartford‐area nonprofit organizations to participate.  BEC is a multi‐year program that includes evaluation capacity development for selected organizations and ongoing study for participating organizations that have completed the initial evaluation capacity building work.  The evaluation capacity building training operates in two phases (phase I = initial training and evaluation project design, phase II = project implementation and continued training).   Each phase is designed to provide comprehensive, long‐term training and coaching to increase both evaluation capacity and organization‐wide use of evaluative thinking for participating organizations.  

Leadership New England: Essential Shifts for a Thriving Nonprofit Sector

June 29, 2015

The ongoing, against-the-odds resiliency of the nonprofit sector in New England and across the country is remarkable to see. But as this study shows, it is a very fragile resiliency. The sector's success and impact continue to rely on unsustainable trends, including: overworked, underpaid leaders and staff; a never-ending fight to balance budgets and build stable organizations; a lack of investment in professional and leadership development and organizational infrastructure; and a continuing struggle to work out the optimal role for nonprofit boards. Nonprofits in New England and across the nation will continue to play a vital part in building stronger communities and a more just and equitable society. But the sector's resiliency is at its outer limit.As this report sets out to show, it is time to shift how we think about nonprofits in New England and consider what supports they need to succeed. To the extent we do so, we will be able to predict with certainty that New England's nonprofits can remain resilient and effective well into the future -- and can continue to contribute to the vibrancy of our communities, our people and our region.This report profiles New England's nonprofits and their leaders and recommends three shifts in that will help the sector become more sustainable and healthy.

Immigrants in Connecticut: Labor Market Experiences and Health Care Access

November 1, 2005

This profile of Connecticut's immigrants is intended to help policymakers, state planners, and service providers better understand the size, characteristics, and needs of the state's immigrant population. Beyond the basic demographics of the foreign-born population, the report focuses on immigrants in the labor force and health care access for different immigrant groups.