"Centering Community" Starts with the Mission and Ends with the Work

 
 

What does it actually take to put community at the center of an organization's work? A new article in Nonprofit Quarterly explores how the words an organization uses to describe itself, starting with its mission, shape whose knowledge counts and whose aspirations come first.

The piece follows Two Feathers Native American Family Services, a Native-led organization in Humboldt County, CA, that reoriented its mission, programs, and strategy around the youth and families it serves. Their story shows that centering community is not a communications exercise but a discipline that reshapes programs, redirects resources, and drives real decisions.

Read the article at Nonprofit Quarterly.

Explore PEG’s “Efficacy Before Scale” framework in SSIR

 
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PEG's article Now part of a new SSIR ebook: "Essentials of Social Innovation: Scaling"
 

An article by John Newsome, Igor Rubinov and Aneesha Capur in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), lays out the “efficacy before scale” framework. To invest in and grow promising organizations and programs in a way that promotes efficacy prior to significant scaling and expansion, there are three pathways to follow: piloting, testing, and iterating. The article lays out valuable case examples from Mission Asset Fund, Working America and Nurse Family Partnerships showing notable impact after following one of pathways to scaling with efficacy.

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The key to this “efficacy before scale” approach is a three-step process:

  1. Build the prototype to demonstrate (early) results: Experiment, test, and refine programmatic approaches based on evidence, feedback, and clear metrics

  2. Refine and “prove” the case: Codify the model to determine which elements can and must be replicated, guided by data and metrics, and develop “proof points” to show significant impact with chosen populations or target areas

  3. Plan to scale: With clarity on effectiveness and replication, develop plans for expansion, replication, and/or dissemination, built on strengths of the refined model

Read the full article here.

Learn more about other PEG Publications.

Community Foundations as Leaders of Place-Based Equity Work

 
 

CFLeads and Public Equity Group (PEG) began collaborating in 2022 to document the equity journeys of 13 community foundations that participated in the CFLeads Racial Equity Network (2017-present).

Convened by CFLeads, a national network of community foundations, the Racial Equity Network aims to build the collective capacity of community foundations interested in advancing equity.

CFLeads and PEG have launched a field report and 13 case studies that spotlight how community foundations are advancing racial equity and diversity within their regions.

CFLeads Racial Equity Network Case Studies

VivaDEI: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Is Still Legal. Still Necessary.

 
 

Public Equity Group launched Viva DEI, a resource hub for social sector organizations navigating the current diversity, equity, and inclusion landscape. The site curates and distills the best legal, policy and communications resources, to help organizations understand what's still lawful and how to keep the work going.

Explore the resources at: vivadei.org

Download a one-page poster with the key DEI questions and answers your organization needs to know.

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