News from TCC Group

September eNews

TCC recently completed an executive transition assignment with Henry Street Settlement, a social service agency in New York City's Lower East Side. We worked with David Garza, who began his appointment as Executive Director in July 2010, to develop a plan that ensured a smooth transition and engaged the senior team as co-owners of the organization's vision and strategy.TCC first conducted an online organizational assessment to identify priority areas. Over the course of several coaching conversations, we worked closely with Garza to develop a new vision statement that articulated core organizational values and management principles. Garza and his senior team then used the statement as the basis of a transition plan, which identified key objectives and outlined an implementation strategy to guide the organization through the next year and establish a foundation for future strategic direction.

Henry Street Settlement

Technocratic and Humanistic: Why the Best Work in Philanthropy Requires Multiple Intelligences

During the past decade, a technocratic approach to philanthropy has become more common and has introduced numerous benefits to the field. This model involves applying business principles to set goals clearly, devise focused strategies, measure results rigorously, and engage with grantees to increase impact. A debate has arisen, however, as some have criticized such methods and advocated for more humanistic approaches that are values-based, intuitive, and responsive.

In the most recent issue of The Foundation Review, Senior Partner and Chief Client Services Officer Paul Connolly shares ideas about how philanthropy could benefit from blending the objective, proactive, and accountability-oriented technocratic model with the passion-driven, opportunistic, and learning-oriented humanistic approach. Paul also blogs on this topic in Tactical Philanthropy.

Join the Webinar

On October 6, Philanthropy New York and TCC will co-sponsor a webinar moderated by The Foundation Review's Editor-in-Chief Teri Behrens: "Grantmaking from the Head and Heart," with Paul Connolly, Paul Brest of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Carol Goss of The Skillman Foundation, and Gayle Williams of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. Register here.

Doing More with More: Putting Shared Leadership Into Practice

With changes in the economy and on the political stage, leadership has been Suan Misra much in the news. In the current issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly, TCC Associate Director Susan Misra with co-authors Michael Allison and Elissa Perry look at how sharing nonprofit leadership creates stronger organizations. Based on our work with the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, this ariticle provides a framework for developing an adaptive, systemic approach for extending leadership beyond a nonprofit's executive director to others within the organization.

Richard Mittenthal Elected to The American Assembly

TCC President and CEO Richard Mittenthal was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of The American Assembly, a national, non-partisan public affairs forum affiliated with Columbia University.

The American Assembly illuminates issues of public policy by commissioning and issuing research and publications and sponsoring meetings. Its projects bring together leading authorities representing a broad spectrum of views and interests. The organization's reports and publications are used by government, community, and civic leaders, and public officials. The American Assembly issues range from arts and culture, philanthropy, and health, to business, economy, education, law, race, religion and security.

Fueling Nonprofit Innovation:
R&D Vigor Trumps Randomized Control Trial Rigor

In the private sector, product designers use Research and Development to determine which combination of product features work best. Now, it's time for philanthropic and nonprofit leaders to adopt these practices to maximize learning and improve program effectiveness.

Senior Partner and Director of Research Peter York's recent post on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog looks at how using an R&D approach to evaluation can help organizations learn, innovate, and reach goals faster.

Read his briefing paper, Success By Design.

About TCC Group

Our mission is to develop strategies and programs that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations, philanthropies, and corporate community involvement programs to achieve social impact.

www.tccgrp.com