Most Popular PhilanTopic Posts (October 2013)

A shutdown of the federal government that lasted sixteen days, the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov, a well-deserved (!) Red Sox win in the World Series -- October was nothing if not eventful. And now that it's history, it's time to look back at the most popular posts on PhilanTopic during the month:

• The Brave New World of Good (Brad Smith)
• When Government Shuts Down, the Nonprofit Community Pays
(Tim Delaney)
• After Overhead: Investing in Nonprofit Financial Fitness (Rebecca Thomas)
• Tips for Seeking First-Time Support (Allison Shirk)
• New Initiative Moves Beyond College Access for Low-Income Students (AiLun Ku, Greg MacDonald)

What have you been reading/watching/listening to that PhilanTopic readers should know about? Share your favorites in the comments section....

Most Popular PhilanTopic Posts (September 2013)

It's the first day of of a new month, which means it's time to look back at the most popular posts on PhilanTopic during the month just passed. And the winners are:

• After Overhead: Investing in Nonprofit Financial Fitness (Rebecca Thomas)
• The Transparent Spend Down (Charles Bronfman)
• Dear Abby’s Advice to a Funder (Allison Shirk)
• Tips for Seeking First-Time Support (Allison Shirk)
• Philanthropy and the Millennium Development Goals (Brad Smith)

What did you read/watch/listen to in September that PhilanTopic readers should know about? Share your favorites in the comments section....

Dilemmas of a Water Funder

(David Rothschild leads the Portfolio Team at the Skoll Foundation. His post below also appears on the WASHfunders.org blog.)

What a moment! At an April press conference, the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, held up a handwritten number and announced, "2030. This is it. This is the global target to end poverty."

That historic moment also served to underscore some of the dilemmas that I and other WASH (clean water, sanitation, and hygiene) funders grapple with. How do we establish audacious -- yet realistic -- goals? How do we announce an ambitious goal -- such as full water and sanitation coverage in a number of countries -- and have confidence that we have a reasonable chance of achieving it?

What should our role as funders be, if not to push boundaries? If we just continue to provide incremental progress, we may never solve this problem. If the president of the World Bank can put forth aggressive goals, then foundation funders can -- and should -- do the same. After all, moving the needle on the world's most pressing problems is a moral imperative.

The Social Progress Index: Measuring What Counts?

The Washington, D.C.-based Social Progress Imperative made a splash at the Skoll World Forum earlier this month when it launched its Social Progress Index (SPI), an ambitious effort to inform and influence development policies around the globe.

Developed by Harvard Business School professor and competitiveness expert Michael E. Porter in collaboration with Scott Stern of MIT, the index is founded on the principle that "what we measure guides the choices we make." To that end, the index analyzes fifty-two outcome-based (as opposed to input-based) indicators in three dimensions of social progress: meeting basic human needs; establishing the foundations of well-being that enable individuals to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives; and creating opportunity for all to reach their full potential. (For a complete breakdown of indicators, click here.)

While the index and the report (154 pages, PDF) released in conjunction with the launch of the index includes only fifty countries, those countries represent three-quarters of the world's population. Here's a chart from the report that plots their aggregate SPI scores against GDP per capita (PPP):