Study lays out roadblocks to systemic change efforts

• Date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30744
• Published date: 01 April 2020

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR APRIL 2020

6© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Nonprot Research

Study lays out roadblocks

to systemic change efforts

Even while pressure mounts for nonprots to focus

their resources on programs and interventions that

show tangible and quantiable results to report back

to funders, other organizations are raising red ags

that such an approach is actually standing in the way

of broad-based systemic changes that are needed to

fully address some of society’s most critical challenges.

According to a recent report from McKinsey &

Company and Ashoka—developed in collaboration

with Catalyst 2030, Co-Impact, Echoing Green, the

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, the

Skoll Foundation and SystemIQ—such activity-based

programs (for example, those that provide temporary

shelter for the homeless) may have easy metrics to call

upon that demonstrate in simple terms how many

individuals are being served by the program. But how

effective they are in addressing the broader problem—

homelessness, in this example—is less clear. These

groups argue that the more effective and worthwhile

approach to complex social issues requires long-term

support that goes beyond activity-based funding to

focus on tackling root causes.

However, systems-change efforts are hampered by

standard funding practices that are built to support

short-term projects with clear, measurable results in-

stead of collaborative, evolving approaches to create

lasting change, the report notes. It identied the fol-

lowing core challenges to adopting a systems-change

approach:

• Short funding horizons. Most systems-change ap-

proaches are expected to need more than ve years of

funder support to achieve their goals, but few funders

commit for the long term, the report said.

• Restricted nancial resources. Financial support

typically comes with many restrictions on how it

can be used, with most organizations pursuing sys-

tems-change programming receiving less than 25%

unrestricted funding.

• Funders’ interference with initiatives. According

to the report, many funders seem to actively dis-

courage innovative approaches. Some 87% of the

systems-change leaders said they had to adapt their

initiatives to comply with funder requirements, and

nearly half had to make major changes.

With these challenges in mind, the report laid out

a series of principles and practices that funders can

adopt to better support systems-change work:

• Embrace a systems mindset by being clear about

the systems you want to change, incorporating sys-

tems change into your DNA and actively looking for

funding opportunities.

• Support evolving paths to systems change by

funding systems leaders with transformative visions

of improved systems rather than projects, investing

in learning and capability building and encouraging

collaboration among systems-change leaders.

• Work in true partnership by acknowledging and

working against power dynamics, providing support

that ts systems-change leaders’ needs and being

mindful of their limited resources.

• Prepare for long-term engagement by being

realistic about the time it takes to achieve systems

change, acknowledging that the path of the initiatives

will change along the way and encouraging realistic

ambitions.

• Collaborate with other stakeholders by align-

ing with other funders, building networks for sys-

tems-change leaders and leaving the leading role to

systems-change leaders.

The report includes in-depth discussions for each

of these, with case-study examples. The goal is to

spark discussion among the funding communi-

ty—including philanthropists, foundations, impact

investors, corporate donors, government agencies

and multilateral organizations—that will help them

to fundamentally rethink and redesign the way sys-

tems-change approaches are being supported.

To read the report in full, visit https://bit.

ly/39TmDyi. ■

Check out our improved NBA website

Our secure website, wileyonlinelibrary.com/

journal/nba, provides subscribers with access

to all of our Nonprot Business Advisor content

online at no additional charge.

Access it for news affecting nonprots,

business strategies, best practices and tools to

help your organization meet its mission.

Contact cs-journals@wiley.com

for more information.