National Membership Organization Helps to Expand Results Count

Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor, a mem­ber­ship orga­ni­za­tion that col­lec­tive­ly rep­re­sents tens of thou­sands of char­i­ta­ble groups across the coun­try, recent­ly has pur­sued the ambi­tious goal of ensur­ing that all peo­ple in the Unit­ed States thrive, with a tar­get­ed focus on com­mu­ni­ties of col­or. Results Count^®, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s unique approach to lead­er­ship devel­op­ment, has been help­ing the orga­ni­za­tion and its diverse mem­ber­ship align their work in pur­suit of that goal.

A Results Count hub, Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor is led by pres­i­dent and CEO Dan Car­di­nali, a mem­ber of the 2007-08 class of the Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship^®, Casey’s sig­na­ture pro­gram to devel­op strong, results-dri­ven lead­ers. ​“Results Count is part of our man­age­ment struc­ture,” says Car­di­nali. ​“It pro­vides a clear goal for our orga­ni­za­tion­al strate­gies and a mech­a­nism for train­ing staff to rou­tine­ly inte­grate equi­ty into the imple­men­ta­tion of those strategies.”

Engag­ing the alum­ni of Inde­pen­dent Sector’s mul­ti­ple fel­low­ship pro­grams is a key strat­e­gy in work­ing to embed an equi­table results frame in the non­prof­it sec­tor. ​“The Results Count work is the scaf­fold­ing around which we build the fel­low­ships,” says Car­di­nali. ​“It is a way of inte­grat­ing its tools and method­ol­o­gy into capac­i­ty-build­ing for the sector’s future leadership.”

A Vehi­cle for Change

Fun­da­men­tal to Inde­pen­dent Sector’s work is build­ing con­nec­tions, shar­ing knowl­edge and nur­tur­ing lead­er­ship among the diverse non­prof­its, foun­da­tions and cor­po­rate-giv­ing pro­grams that con­sti­tute its mem­ber­ship. To accel­er­ate this work, Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor employs Results Count’s five core com­pe­ten­cies and two foun­da­tion­al frame­works, includ­ing data-dri­ven analy­sis and ​“small tests of change.”

For exam­ple, a vari­ety of sur­veys pro­vide the data to bet­ter under­stand how effec­tive­ly Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor is reach­ing par­tic­u­lar groups, includ­ing com­mu­ni­ty activists, pub­lic pol­i­cy audi­ences and aca­d­e­mics. ​“We look at dis­ag­gre­gat­ed data to see if there are demo­graph­ic dif­fer­ences in the way folks are per­ceiv­ing and expe­ri­enc­ing our work,” says Kristi­na Gawr­gy, Inde­pen­dent Sector’s chief com­mu­ni­ca­tions and com­mu­ni­ty-build­ing offi­cer. ​“Based on those data, we use the Plan-Do-Study-Act method to adjust our strategies.”

As a con­ven­ing orga­ni­za­tion, Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor and its staff have ben­e­fit­ed from train­ing in Results-Based Facil­i­ta­tion™. ​“With its sophis­ti­cat­ed under­stand­ing of group dynam­ics and the coach­ing about how to both play your clear role and let oth­ers play their roles in a sup­port­ive way, Results Based Facil­i­ta­tion has become a very impor­tant vehi­cle for us, not only for our own work but also for work­ing with our part­ners toward a shared result,” says Cardinali.

Engag­ing Fel­low­ship Alumni

Results Count method­olo­gies, tools and skills are cen­tral to Inde­pen­dent Sector’s fel­low­ship pro­grams for lead­ers in the non­prof­it com­mu­ni­ty. Among the ideas explored by fel­lows are the Per­son-Role-Sys­tem con­cept and B/ART — which stands for Bound­aries of Author­i­ty, Role and Task — both of which help lead­ers define their own con­tri­bu­tions to the larg­er goal of advanc­ing equi­table out­comes for a thriv­ing nation.

Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor recent­ly launched the Bridg­ing Fel­lows pro­gram, which seeks to strength­en the indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive lead­er­ship capac­i­ty of local change-mak­ers in Pitts­burgh, Chica­go and Dal­las. While work­ing to build healthy, equi­table com­mu­ni­ties, the fel­lows learn and share Results Count skills, includ­ing those that help them engage in chal­leng­ing con­ver­sa­tions and bridge racial, socioe­co­nom­ic and ide­o­log­i­cal divisions.

Alum­ni of Inde­pen­dent Sector’s Upswell Fel­lows, Wal­mart Fel­lows, NGen Fel­lows and Bridg­ing Fel­lows con­sti­tute a pow­er­ful net­work of non­prof­it lead­ers com­mit­ted to the goal of ensur­ing that all peo­ple in the Unit­ed States thrive. Some 400 alum­ni, more than half of whom are peo­ple of col­or, are engaged in var­i­ous net­work­ing activ­i­ties, as well as ​“tune-ups” in results-based lead­er­ship. Inde­pen­dent Sector’s month­ly sur­veys of alum­ni pro­vide the data for mea­sur­ing their sense of com­mu­ni­ty and adjust­ing its pro­gram offer­ings, as needed.

“The alum­ni strat­e­gy is a strat­e­gy for increas­ing the num­ber of lead­ers who use Results Count as a core com­pe­ten­cy,” says Habib Bako, Inde­pen­dent Sector’s senior direc­tor for com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment. ​“There is the huge poten­tial of hun­dreds of lead­ers who are real­ly well versed in Results Count think­ing and who are trans­form­ing their own pro­gram­ming and convenings.”

A Game-Chang­ing Difference

Car­di­nali has announced that 2022 will be his last year as pres­i­dent and CEO of Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor. Results Count, how­ev­er, will remain deeply embed­ded in all lev­els of the orga­ni­za­tion, includ­ing its board. Board Chair Fred Black­well, CEO of the San Fran­cis­co Foun­da­tion, a Results Count hub, was a mem­ber of the 2007–2008 class of the Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship. Board sec­re­tary and exec­u­tive com­mit­tee mem­ber Michael McAfee, pres­i­dent and CEO of Pol­i­cyLink, anoth­er Results Count hub, was a mem­ber of the 2010–2011 Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship class.

“Results Count at Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor is held at the strate­gic lev­el,” says Car­di­nali. ​“And that has made a game-chang­ing difference.”