The Nonprofit Marketplace Bridging the Information Gap in …

[Pages:68]The Nonprofit Marketplace

Bridging the Information Gap in Philanthropy

Front cover

Cruz Martinez is shown here painting a ceramic sculpture he made in the Mattie Rhodes Art Center's Visual Arts After School Program, which serves urban elementary school students in Kansas City, Missouri, and participates in the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation's online tool, DonorEdge. According to Mattie Rhodes' Executive Director, JohnFierro, "DonorEdge offers us an online platform that ensures a level of transparency that we can't accomplish anywhere else. We also go the extra mile to have our profile reviewed by our community foundation because we know donors are becoming more deliberate with their giving and they are looking for organizations that meet their high standards." Photo ? Jennifer Mendez

The Nonprofit Marketplace Bridging the Information Gap in Philanthropy

Copyright ? 2008

The nonprofit marketplace Bridging the information gap in philanthropy

Preface

The Hewlett Foundation's Philanthropy Program is committed to increasing the social impact achieved by nonprofit organizations and their donors. Over the past year, the Foundation and McKinsey & Company have been developing a roadmap to a nonprofit marketplace in which high-quality information about the performance and impact of nonprofit organizations flows freely among all stakeholders.

Our hypothesis is that access to high-quality information will lead donors to allocate funds more strategically to organizations doing the best work. We also believe that having better performance information will help nonprofit organizations operate more effectively and better fulfill their missions. Lastly, we believe that shared information will help all nonprofit sector stakeholders to engage in constructive conversations about organizational performance and social impact.

As part of our work to assess the current situation, identify best practices, and develop potential solutions to bridge the information gap, we

Surveyed recent articles, books, and research papers on the U.S. nonprofit sector

Examined hundreds of websites of nonprofit, for profit, and intermediary organizations

The Nonprofit Marketplace: Bridging the Information Gap in Philanthropy

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 Developed case studies of online marketplace development in the travel and financial sectors

Reviewed lessons learned from the grants the Hewlett Foundation has made to strengthen the practice of philanthropy

Conducted more than 50 interviews with donors, nonprofit leaders, foundation executives, and leading thinkers and observers of the nonprofit arena

Held working sessions with key opinion leaders to generate ideas and test findings; these discussions are ongoing.

This discussion paper summarizes our perspectives on how the nonprofit sector might improve the flow of information over the next 5 to 10years. We hope this paper will spur a lively dialogue among nonprofit organizations, foundations, individual donors, and the many intermediaries supporting the sector. Making the kinds of changes we are proposing is a huge, multi-year challenge and one that will require significant collaboration among a variety of stakeholders. We recognize that pressure for better performance information and greater accountability will raise concerns that work that is not easily and quickly measured will be discounted. However, we firmly believe that improving the availability and quality of information can have an enormous positive impact on nonprofit organizations' ability to accomplish their goals. We invite your feedback and welcome your active participation in an ongoing dialogue about the ideas and suggestions put forth in this paper. Simply go to and share your thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you.

Maisie O'Flanagan, McKinsey & Company maisie_oflanagan@ Jacob Harold and Paul Brest, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation philanthropy@

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Contents

Executive summary Introduction Chapter 1: Improving information supply Chapter 2: Increasing demand for information Chapter 3: Strengthening intermediaries and interactions Chapter 4: Jump-starting change Closing thoughts

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