Social Sector Hero Spotlight: United Way of Waco-McLennan County

By: Adam Luecking December 12th, 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 spotlight is an excerpt from "Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact" by Adam Luecking. [...]

Social Sector Hero Spotlight: Whatcom County, Washington (USA)

By: Adam Luecking December 5th, 2022 Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following Whatcom County, Washington (USA) spotlight is an excerpt from "Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact" by [...]

Social Sector Hero Spotlight: March of Dimes

By: Adam Luecking November 14th, 2022 Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following March of Dimes spotlight is an excerpt from "Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact" by Adam [...]

Social Sector Hero Spotlight: Baltimore City

By: Adam Luecking November 9th, 2022 Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following Baltimore City spotlight is an excerpt from "Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact" by Adam Luecking. [...]

For Funders: How to Move from Good Intentions to Even Greater Impact

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 [...]

2022-09-19T11:00:11-04:00By |Categories: Funders|0 Comments

How to Support Effective Dialogue With Grantees that Enhances Trust and Results in Action

“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 [...]

How to Journal Your Social Impact Journey and Why it’s Important 

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 [...]

Funders: Grantees Need Consistency and Flexibility to Succeed

“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 [...]

2022-08-12T12:02:04-04:00By |Categories: Funders, Performance Management|0 Comments

What are Organizational “Side Quests” and Why Should Funders Avoid Them?

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 [...]

2022-08-05T16:35:19-04:00By |Categories: Funders, Performance Management|0 Comments

Why You Need to be Disaggregating Your Data

When working with organizations, we often see leaders with good intentions make a simple mistake: taking their data at face value instead of looking deeper into the numbers. But when you take your data at face value, this can often lead to incorrect and counterproductive conclusions.  Consider an organization seeking to improve the graduation [...]