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Highlights from the SSIR Online editorial team

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(Illustration by iStock/ajijchan)

Intermediary funds

ARTICLE | How movement facilitators can transform philanthropy

“Despite recognition from large, influential funders and institutions, the roles of intermediary organizations are often opaque to outsiders,” write the leaders of community intermediary funds Color Congress, El/La Para TransLatinas, Liberation Ventures, Common Counsel Foundation, Blue Heart, and Emergent Fund. They share how they envision their role in the philanthropic landscape, including their approach to expanding philanthropic reach and access, effectively listening and responding to the movements they serve, and ultimately disrupting private philanthropy as it exists today.


The effect of training

ARTICLE | Measuring the impact of trainer training

Nonprofits are increasingly using an educational framework designed to turn trainees into expert trainers themselves – to expand their reach and meet ever-growing demands. But while many organizations intuitively know that this model has a greater impact than delivering one-off services, they have lacked a way to quantify it. A unique measurement tool developed by global health nonprofit ReSurge International now allows them to quantify the needs met and demonstrate to funders that such programs are worth the investment.


Shaping the future

ARTICLE | Using strategic foresight to shape the future we want

Compared to businesses, charities and nonprofits are late adopters of organizational foresight and future planning tools to improve their outcomes. However, Marina Gorbis, executive director of the Institute for the Future, argues that these tools “can help organizations in the social sector be bolder, aim higher, and reach a wider audience than traditional strategic planning activities.” She then explains how organizations can use strategic foresight to achieve their goals, strengthen communities, and increase equity.


The challenge of impact investing

ARTICLE | Impact investing should be difficult

In addition to returns, impact investors must understand social and environmental issues, analyze impact data, and perform other tasks that theoretically make their job more difficult than that of traditional investors, says Michael Brown, research director of the Wharton School’s Environmental, Social, and Governance Initiative. But his study of more than 200 impact fund managers around the world who sought different returns revealed a counterintuitive result: Investors who did not need to achieve market returns in addition to impact consistently found impact investing more difficult than investors who sought both market returns and social impact. Brown examines this apparent contradiction and asks whether impact investing is really the vanguard of the responsible investing movement.


Non-profit scale

ARTICLE | A new look at how nonprofits really get big in the US

Bridgespan officials discuss a new analysis of nearly 300 U.S. nonprofits with annual revenues of $50 million or more. The authors also describe three approaches nonprofits seeking to raise money to reach significant scale should take.

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By Bronte

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