By: Adam Luecking October 28th, 2022 Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following United Way Worldwide spotlight is an excerpt from "Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact" by Adam [...]
By: Adam Luecking October 26th, 2022 Performance and impact management may seem confusing and overwhelming, but it becomes less intimidating when done effectively. Effective performance and impact management involve planning out two kinds of measures (program performance measures vs. community indicators) and then utilizing a standard and repeatable system to improve [...]
September 19th, 2022 By: Adam Luecking When it comes to the important work of social impact, racial equity, and community well-being, it isn’t enough to have good intentions. Our actions as public servants must reflect those intentions, and we must constantly ask ourselves whether we are living up to them. If we aren’t, we must [...]
“When you open the door toward openness and transparency, a lot of people will follow you through.” – Kirsten Gillibrand September 12th, 2022 By: Adam Luecking When I was fresh out of college in 2003, I was in a community leadership program called Impact Silver Spring. As a participant, I identified a community need and [...]
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw September 5th, 2022 By: Adam Luecking My oldest son Connor started sixth grade in the midst of COVID-19. Not only did Connor have to make the normal adjustments a child has to make when transitioning from elementary [...]
August 29th, 2022 By: Adam Luecking Maintaining a healthy weight has been a challenge for most of my adult life. My scale was the "elephant in the bathroom." Eventually, I realized data avoidance was making things worse, so I committed to paying attention to my weight and accepting it for what it was. This simple [...]
“True flexibility can be achieved only when all muscles are uniformly developed.” - Joseph Pilates August 22, 2022 By: Adam Luecking My four kids have wildly different personalities. One is extremely shy, one is outgoing, one goes along to get along, and one prefers to just be left alone. Despite these differences, my wife and [...]
August 15th, 2022 By: Adam Luecking What is the Data Troll? Any social impact journey worth taking is fraught with obstacles and challenges that can seriously hinder progress. While there are no literal monsters on what I call the “Social Sector Hero’s Journey,” there is a tempting figure that can lead organizations down the wrong [...]
August 8th, 2022 By: Adam Luecking Funders - think about all the important activities you and your grantees engage in on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Whether it’s project evaluation, budgeting, program implementation, research, data collection, data analysis, administrative functions, strategy development, meetings, reporting, operational processes, emails, staff development… the list goes [...]
In the philanthropic funding space, having good intentions does not always mean good results. As hard of a pill as this may be to swallow, it's an important fact that every funder should accept. Sometimes we try to get by on our good intentions, but as my friend and mentor Mark Friedman says in [...]
