In January 2004, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation commissioned The Bridgespan Group to study growth in U.S. youth-serving organizations: the prevalence of growth, the factors that were critical in shaping how these organizations grew, and the major consequences of growth. One of the chief components of the study was an in-depth look at 20 youth-serving nonprofit organizations that had recently experienced significant growth. The findings offer useful insights for youth-serving organization aspiring to grow, and for funders supporting these organizations.(This link will take you to the Executive Summary, which links to the full White Paper and other related materials.)
Increasing Efficiency Without Hurting Quality
Can nonprofit organizations become more efficient without sacrificing quality? As the experiences of Teach for America, Jumpstart, and Year Up attest, such productivity gains can happen. But they don’t just happen. To achieve meaningful economies, these youth-serving organizations standardized their best practices, invested in essential people and processes, managed their costs, and tracked their progress. None of this was easy; but it was all worth doing, because it helped them drive down the cost per outcome. Not the cost per output, which is the measure most funders ask for and the one that is far easier to calculate. But the cost per outcome, which is the true measure of productivity and the guarantee that a nonprofit's cost cuts and investments are indeed creating more bang for the buck.
Growing to Full Potential
You know that your program is having an impact; you've been operating for a while and you're seeing results. Your board and staff are eager to do more. But how much more, realistically, can your organization accomplish? And how can you grow without imperiling the successful work you're already doing? This was the situation facing The Steppingstone Foundation's management and board when they joined forces with Bridgespan in 2002. While they were doing a great job preparing kids for college, they wondered if they could serve more kids. If so, how many more? And what changes would they have to make to support growth?
Building on Success
In 2003, MY TURN (aMerica’s Youth Teenage Unemployment Reduction Network, Inc.) developed a three-year business plan that envisioned significant growth in the number of communities and youth it was serving. Within two years, the organization had knocked that ball out of the park, and its leaders were energized to do more. At the same time, they were concerned about the speed of the organization’s growth and its ability to attract additional funding. Would it be better to add programs, sites or both? What would growth entail for their staff, systems and existing organizational structure? How much new funding would it take to grow? How could the organization ensure sustainability? This case study illustrates how MY TURN honed its approach to growth in light of its infrastructure needs and capabilities, while adhering to its mission and continuing on the trajectory set by its original strategic plan.
Recommended Resources
There are many third-party resources that provide valuable insight into the field of youth development, child services, and related research. Below are five of our favorites.
Chapin Hall-Center for Children at the University of Chicago
This research group's website provides resources for those interested in topics related to economic programs for children and families, child welfare and well-being, youth development, community development, education, and related policy research. All of its papers, studies, and research are availabe for free, and can be easily searched by topic and author.
Kids Count
Provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kids Count is an online database that tracks the well being of children across the nation and state by state. Indicators tracked are from the Kids Count Data Book and include such areas as education, health, health insurance, poverty and more. Each area is broken down to further focus users' research efforts.
National Youth Development Information Center
A project of the National Collaboration for Youth, this website provides a digest of up-to-date research and policy briefs on youth development.
Child Trends
This nonpartisan research center studies children at every stage of development. The organization provides free access to papers, research briefs, reports, speeches and other publications on its website. Research areas that the group focuses on include child poverty, child welfare, fatherhood and parenting, marriage and family, youth development, and more.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Located within the US Department of Education, the NCES collects and analyzes data related to education and provides free access to a national database of test results and other education indicators.