View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Sophia Fu, Katherine R. Cooper Cross-sector social partnership (CSSP) case-based theory and research have long argued that nonprofits that engage in more integrative and enduring cross-sector partnerships should increase their organizational capacity. By increasing their capacity, nonprofits increase their ability to contribute to systemic change. The current research investigates this claim in a large-scale empirical research study. In particular, this study examines whether nonprofits

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Liz Howard In this case, lessons from the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative illustrate key principles of collaborative action and the importance of using data to achieve SMART goals. In 2015, the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative (CBC) was a network of seven agencies in Chicago, Illinois, serving 12,000 low-income residents. Each of the agencies had early childhood, school-age children, and adult education programs. At the prompting of

View the Resource By Elisa J. Gordon, Jungwha Lee, Raymond H. Kang, Juan Carlos Caicedo, Jane L. Holl, Daniela P. Ladner, Michelle Shumate 1. Background: The shortage of organs for kidney transplantation for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is magnified in Hispanics/Latin Americans in the United States. Living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) is the treatment of choice for ESRD. However, compared to their representation on the transplant waitlist, fewer

Innovation has become a buzzword for nonprofit organizations seeking to obtain funding, improve service delivery, and enhance performance. In this research, we asked one question: how can nonprofit organizations be more innovative? To answer this question, we conducted surveys among a random sample of 2,000 nonprofit organizations with a revenue above $250,000 in the United States from April to August 2017. In total, 306 organizations returned surveys and 293 surveys

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Katherine R. Cooper This document discusses challenges and strategies for using data in coalitions to improve outcomes. It describes how some coalitions have struggled to collect and make use of data. However, it also provides examples of coalitions that have successfully used data to monitor performance and see what is working. The document emphasizes that moving from simply reporting data to actively learning from

By: Katherine Cooper In recent years, funders and consultants have emphasized building nonprofit capacity – that is, the processes, practices, and people that a nonprofit has at its disposal that enables it to produce, perform, or deploy resources to achieve its mission. Many organizations have developed their own tools for assessing capacity; however, despite having a variety of available options, nonprofit leaders struggle to measure capacity. This is in part