Gayathri Tirthapura's blog

White paper released by MCS: A snapshot of the effect of economic downturn on nonprofits

Gayathri Tirthapura — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:12:58 -0500

As a provider of strategic planning, strategic technology, and other technical assistance services to nonprofit organizations throughout the Greater Boston area, those of us at Management Consulting Services (MCS) readily see the impact of the worsening economic crisis on the sector. We recently conducted a survey of nonprofits in Massachusetts to gauge the impact of the economic crisis on the nonprofit sector in order for us to talk about the effects using some data rather than anecdotes. This report presents the findings from this survey.Following were some of the major findings from this survey:a. While organizations of all budget sizes anticipate the economic downturn impacting their organization, organizations with smaller budgets indicate that the impact will be greater compared to organizations with larger budgets.

Non-profits outside U.S: A reflection

Gayathri Tirthapura — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:02:04 -0400

When I visited Bangalore, India, during the summer, I got an opportunity to visit 3 different non-profits and spend considerable time with the leaders of the organizations. Each of these organizations was founded by very passionate people who in all cases could relate very closely with the issues that the organizations’ constituents were facing and have grown considerably since their inception. I found many similarities between the challenges that these organizations faced and the ones that I commonly see within non-profits in the U.S. But I also saw a very important difference between what I saw in India and what I see in the U.S, which I hope to uncover in this blog.

How much focus on outcomes is enough?

Gayathri Tirthapura — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:23:02 -0400

I’m traveling to Bangalore, India right now. I’ve been meeting some foundations involved in funding programs in the area of children’s education. Recently, I
was talking to a program officer at a mid-sized foundation in Bangalore. We were exchanging ideas about how foundations should measure the outcomes of programs they fund. How much outcomes measurements is enough from a foundation’s perspective? When non-profits are so tightly squeezed for resources, what is fair to ask from them?

A White Paper on "Developing Agents of Change" released by MCS

Gayathri Tirthapura — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:14:12 -0400

The focus of this paper is to describe the unique features of a youth programming model that is currently implemented by the "The Young Peoples Project" headquartered in Cambridge, MA. This programming model contributes to both individual and societal change. In summary they are:
• A focus on “peer to peer” knowledge transfer
• A focus on creating individual and collective purpose
• A focus on developing a sense of freedom about ‘work’
• A content based approach which contributes to both organizational capacity and program replicability
This paper also describes the types of outputs and social indicators that are emerging from a solid ten-year history of using this engaging program model.

From making a profit to making a difference

Gayathri Tirthapura — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:15:12 -0400

These days, there is a significant trend related to professionals moving from the corporate sector to non-profit sector. The most popular figure who has done this is Bill Gates himself. But have you ever wondered as to what it really takes to make such a shift in careers? Just in terms of skills and attitudes that one needs to possess for a career in non-profits, what is required? You may be prepared to take the pay cut and may possess utmost passion for helping the underprivileged but that may not be enough.

MCS Blog: Where does the program evaluator belong in an organization?

Gayathri Tirthapura — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:32:17 -0400

Program evaluators typically have to pay attention to two opposing sides of interest and try to balance them out carefully. On the one hand, they have a stake of their own in the evaluation. In the interest of being recognized professionally, they have to please the study sponsor. If the evaluator is a staff person within a non-profit, she would be concerned about pleasing her boss and colleagues and thus advancing her career. If she is from outside the non-profit and a funder has sponsored the study, she is concerned about pleasing the funder so that they send more work her way.

Notes from the PEAR conference

Gayathri Tirthapura — Sat, 05 May 2007 18:37:25 -0400

I attended the 5th Annual PEAR conference (Program in Education, After-school and Resiliency - www.pearweb.org) that was organized by PEAR on April 27th, 2007. PEAR was established in 1999 in response to the growing recognition that a developmental approach to education and after-school programming is necessary in order to build resiliency, prevent high-risk behavior and build success in schools among youth.

Usefulness of summative evaluations to internal organizational planning

Gayathri Tirthapura — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:04:54 -0400

A recent article by the Stanford Social Innovation Review called “Drowning in Data”(http://www.ssireview.org/pdf/2006FA_feature_snibbe.pdf) quotes “For all their sophistication, they cannot prove that they are making an impact - a requirement that many funders now demand....“ While quoting this, the article is referring to outcome evaluation designs that don’t involve randomized control groups. Yes, it is true that there are severe threats to the validity of the results of an outcome evaluation that don’t involve randomized control groups.