Keystone - News

The rights of 'Consumers' of development products and services

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:23:31 -0400

Your feedback is very important as we begin to explore what a Consumer Rights Charter for Aid Recipients may look like. Please take only 5 minutes and fill our short online survey by clicking here.

We are all consumers. When we purchase medicine, or processed food, or petrol, when we take out a loan, or hire a mechanic or a plumber, we do so with a vast array of legal and institutional arrangements in place to protect our interests as consumers.

Keystone Summer Internship Opportunity

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:49:05 -0400

Keytone is currently accepting applications for two interns in their London office for the summer of 2008. To learn more about this opportunity and how to apply, please download the attached job description. We look forward to hearing from you!

What's the IMPACT of this all?

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:11:54 -0400

A panel entitled "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What's the IMPACT of this all?" delivered at this year's Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship explored new approaches to assessing the impact of our work. The panel, formed by social investors and entrepreneurs - including Fay Twersky, Director for Impact Planning and Improvement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Brian Trestald, Chief Investment Officer of the Acumen Fund and Keystone's Chief Executive, David Bonbright - examined the challenges of impact assessment for social enterprises, from time constraints faced by social entrepreneurs on the ground to the conciliation of different approaches to measuring and the choice of what to measure. Panelists presented new trends in thinking about evaluation and impact assessment and agreed that it is only worth pursuing if aimed at learning and improving our work.

Online Philanthropy: Opportunities and challenges

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:22:50 -0400

Two new articles on the Financial Times touch two of the issues that are explored in the recently published Keystone study ‘Online Philanthropy Markets: From Feel-Good Giving to Effective Social Investing?’: the array of opportunities that the online world offers for transforming the way we engage in philanthropic activities and the challenge of giving both with our hearts and heads.

Sarah Murray, in a piece titled: ‘The age of cyberspace offers aids for giving’, reviews the rising phenomenon of online giving and the opportunities that it presents for revolutionizing philanthropy. The article identifies that beyond offering a means for making donations easily, online philanthropy platforms enable knowledge exchange among different actors that facilitates ‘a more “open source” approach to finding solutions to seemingly intractable problems’. In addition, they come with ‘built-in’ accountability and transparency elements, such as direct reports on the use of funds and progress achieved from beneficiary organizations or individuals. And the innovation goes on to enabling direct involvement by users, with systems that are based on user-generated content or crowd-sourcing for identifying successful solutions to social problems.

Simple ideas, big impact

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:23:30 -0400

An inspiring article appeared in December in the New Yorker magazine: a doctor in the United S tates introduced step-by-step checklists for procedures in intensive care units and gave the power to nurses to control doctors' performance against the checklists. The results? In some cases, infection rates in ICUs dropped by 66%. The author wonders: If something so simple can transform intensive care, what else can it do?

Simple ideas often have the greatest impact. At Keystone we believe that simple interventions for enabling the voice of beneficiaries and other constituents of developmental processes enhance the performance and impact that organisations working in the social change field are having. Who better to control and assess the work of these organisations, than those most affected by it? For this, we have developed a series of tools and services that give beneficiaries and other constituents genuine voice within the organisations that act on their behalf and for their benefit.

'Online philanthropy markets: From 'Feel-Good' giving to effective social investing?'

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:20:14 -0500

Online platforms like GlobalGiving, Kiva, Network for Good, GiveIndia, HelpArgentina, and so many more – hold the potential to transform the quality and quantity of resources available for domestic and international development. But can they realise that potential? Can they really revolutionise philanthropy?

With support from the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector Research Fund, Keystone has undertaken a research project to answer these questions. Our breakthrough study 'ONLINE PHILANTHROPY MARKETS: FROM ‘FEEL-GOOD’ GIVING TO EFFECTIVE SOCIAL INVESTING?' examines the rapidly expanding phenomenon of online philanthropy markets and details the opportunity that they have to create the informational basis for results-oriented giving and serving as a lever for greater accountability and effectiveness of social purpose organisations.

More Investment on Impact Evaluation is Needed Survey Finds

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:28:06 -0500

A survey conducted by Keystone in collaboration with Alliance magazine confirms that impact evaluation is a major issue in the social sector with agreement from both the donor and grantee side. However, results show clearly that the general perception in the sector is that there is not enough investment for fostering evaluation practices. Evaluation has the potential to improve learning within social purpose organisations and enable them to improve their performance in bringing about change. But for the full potential to be realised more funding is needed.

The survey, in which 72 grant-making and 226 grant-recipient organisations from all around the world took part, was conducted online during September and October 2007. Donors were asked to provide information about their demands from grantees regarding evaluation and the funding and other support they provided for this purpose. Grantees were asked to answer the survey keeping in mind one of their most important donors and provide their point of view of the donor’s as well as of their own practices related to evaluation. You can see the survey results by clicking here.

Keystone's David Bonbright Guest Edits This Months Alliance Magazine

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:46:07 -0500

David has contributed both as editor and author to the latest issue of Alliance magazine. His article 'What Do We Need to Know?' explores the emergence of new forms of measurement for quality social change. David also co-wrote 'Taking Evaluation Seriously Still a Way to Go' with Betsy Schmidt. This article reports on the online survey Keystone and Alliance conducted to get the opinions of those on both ends of evaluation, donors and grantees. For more from Alliance magazine, click here.

CIVICUS Global Survey of the State of Civil Society Vol. II

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:23:59 -0500

The second volume of the CIVICUS Global Survey of the State of Civil Society offers a wide-ranging analysis of key issues facing civil society worldwide with contributions from prominent researchers and civil society practitioners. Comprising 24 chapters, the book draws on the information collected by the CIVICUS Civil Society Index project in more than 45 countries to explore issues such as civil society’s accountability, its relations to the state and corporate sector and its role in governance and development. It also includes regional overviews of the state of civil society in different continents. By bringing together a diversity of perspectives and themes, this book offers one of the most comprehensive and engaging analyses of civil society worldwide.

The Charitable Measurement Initiative Gets Up and Running

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:22:57 -0500

This month sees the first posts to the new Charitable Measurement Initiative blog. Created by Harsh Trivedi and Alexander Lemke, CMI is passionate about maximizing the impact of non-profit organizations by increasing their transparency and facilitating public reporting. To achieve their goals, CMI has implemented the Keystone framework. Stay up to date with their progress through updates on their blog.

Dateline Rwanda

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:38:32 -0500

Keystone staff David Bonbright and Andre Proctor along with external consultant Jed Emerson, recently travelled to Rwanda for evaluating the possibilities for a high end eco-lodge development to maximize its social and environmental value for the local communities. Site visits and conversations with local officers and community leaders inspired a series of thoughts on a society's struggle to overcome the genocide trauma and move forward reflected in David's travel notes.

Read David's piece "Dateline Rwanda".

Saving the World? What International Philanthropy Can and Cannot Do

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:48:06 -0400

Keystone Chief Executive, David Bonbright, was interviewed on September 20th by Michael Lerner for the New School website on the subject "Saving the World? What International Philanthropy Can and Cannot Do". You can download the interview from the New School website

Publication of the Dalberg “Business Guide to Partnering with NGOs and the United Nations”

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:02:43 -0400

“The Business Guide to partnering with NGOs and the United Nations" was presented at the Global Compact's Leaders Summit in Geneva on July 5.

Keystone’s Chief Executive David Bonbright served as a member of the board of advisors and co-authored the introduction to the Guide, along with Henrik Skovby, Founding Partner of Dalberg Global Development Advisors and Robert H. Dunn, President and CEO of the Synergos Institute. The essay, entitled "The Spirit Behind the Business Guide", commented that "in today’s globalised world, companies need to make a profit and be responsible corporate citizens, but it is difficult to know who to partner with and how. This guide will help companies match their skills and contributions to organizations looking to build successful public private partnerships".

The “Business Guide to Partnering with NGOs and the United Nations” is the first ever global effort to apply a business partnership lens to rate NGOs and UN agencies. The Guide provides a market-based assessment of the competencies of partners from the NGO and UN communities. Social actors are rated and profiled on the basis of their accountability, adaptability, execution and communication.

The “Business Guide to Partnering with NGOs and the United Nations” can be purchased from: http://www.dalberg.com/guide/

A Very Short Guide to Constituency Surveys

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:19:09 -0400

Download and read this document that introduces some of the core principles and techniques to designing surveys of constituents and other stakeholders of a citizen organization.

Keystone at the CIVICUS 2007 World Assembly

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 06:13:21 -0400

Keystone chief executive David Bonbright was elected to a three-year term on the CIVICUS Board of Directors. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is an international alliance of members and partners dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. CIVICUS runs a variety of programmes which include Civil Society Watch, the Civil Society Index and the Legitimacy and Transparency Programme.

The CIVICUS 2007 World Assembly, which was held in Glasgow on 23-27 May, brought together civil society actors and donors from 138 countries around the theme of “Accountability: Delivering Results”. For five days, delegates from around the world explored ways for holding to account governments, the business sector and media. Vividly discussed was as well the issue of civil society’s own accountability practices. The debate at the Assembly was informed by a background paper written by David Bonbright in collaboration with Srilatha Batliwala of the Harvard University Hauser Center for Non-Profits.