Central Texas District Spotlight: Austin ISD & Office of Innovation and Development

Shirley Heitzman, Executive Director of the Office of Innovation and Development for Austin Independent School District (AISD) was invited to contribute as a guest blogger to share highlights of February's CTEF meeting with Dr. Carstarphen. Heitzman leads AISD's partnership and resource development efforts to improve educational outcomes in a district of over 86,000 students.



Photo courtesy of AISD.

This last February, CTEF membership met with  Austin Independent School District’s Superintendent, Meria Carstarphen and Austin Corporate Investors Network members to discuss high interest topics including current successes and challenges in the District, as well as answer questions on topics of interest to the group. More information on the State of the District can be found here. 

Austin is an amazing city, topping the charts of the greatest place to live, run a business and to raise kids. How else can we become the top? We can be number one in education by increasing the number of students who graduate from our public schools through strengthening our student support systems and by increasing community support.



Image courtesy of AISD.



We all have a stake in public education. It is the most important investment that we can make as a community for the future health and prosperity of our city, state and nation. As a community, we need to determine the quality of education we demand for our kids. We need to ask ourselves whether we have the courage and community will to adequately invest in our school and in our children’s education for the future.



How can you contribute and invest in the future of our students and community to continue making Austin great and opportunities greater? Although AISD is currently on sound financial footing, the financial crisis in education remains and additional, tough cuts will have to be made in the coming years. AISD anticipates the need to secure an additional $30 million in private funding over the next three years to continue to provide new delivery models, improve the overall school and district climate for learning and develop academic achievement and support strategies for special populations through accelerated and differentiated instruction. AISD is humbly asking you to help support and fund these innovative strategies to increase student achievement in the areas such as the Arts, Pre-K, expanding Literacy, and High Dosage Tutoring.



While celebrating our diversity, AISD also embraces the challenges of providing excellent education to all of those students in our ever changing demographic. AISD wants to get operations, partnerships and innovations right for ALL of our students, so that AISD can be used as the standard against which urban public education are measured.

To learn more on how to strategically partner with AISD, visit The Office of Innovation and Development. Equally, visit AISD's webpage to learn more details on AISD programs. It is through vibrant, community collaborations that AISD is successful in preparing students for college, career and life.

Saving Philanthropy screening in Austin!

The blog entry below is authored by Kate Robinson, executive producer of Saving Philanthropy. Coupling her passion in film and capturing the vital work of the social sector, Kate and her team set their quest to illustrate how nonprofits think about managing an outcomes strategy and key components it takes to create an outcomes culture that nonprofits and philanthropists can embrace. Saving Philanthropy will screen in Austin, Texas on February 14, 2012 and will feature an interactive seminar for nonprofit professionals after the showing.

Do you wonder if your philanthropic work is having the effect you want? Are you drowning in data? Do you want real evidence of progress but are struggling with how to measure it? If so, mark your calendar on VALENTINE'S DAY to join your nonprofit colleagues at the showing of Saving Philanthropy: Resources to Results Workshop at the Austin Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar!

Hi I'm Kate, life-time nonprofiteer and producer of Saving Philanthropy, a film highlighting the art, science and stories of nonprofit organizations striving towards the evidence of impact. I can honestly say the questions posed above are the very questions I find myself pondering and I know I am not alone. We made this film for leaders of nonprofit organizations and foundations who want to know if their efforts are effective, but are struggling with how to measure it. To date, the film has screened in 23 cities across the country and in Canada reaching thousands of nonprofit professionals who grapple with ensuring program effectiveness. Needless to say, the response has been overwhelming.

I am incredibly encouraged by how helpful people find the film and by the spirited discussions that invariably follow to help communities openly discuss the roadblocks and opportunities for supporting positive outcomes. It’s truly an honor to screen the film in my hometown of Austin and feature local high-performing organizations showcased in the film. Ananda Moss and Jill Nilson from Southwest Key Programs will be sharing their theory of change model and processes for collecting and assessing the right data and Isaac Castillo, from Child Trends, will discuss what happens when you discover a program isn't working. Outcome measurement is here to stay, and the nonprofit sector and the individuals it serves will be better for it.

Check out Kate's interview for the Foundation Center talking about her inspiration for the film!

Join nonprofit colleagues from: Urban Connection, AnyBaby Can, Breakthrough Austin, Center for Public Policy Priorities, Communities In Schools of Central Texas, Front Steps, Greenlights for Nonprofit Success , Hospice Austin, KDK-Harman Foundation, LifeWorks, Southwest Key Programs, Austin Film Society, and OneStar Foundation to explore ways of improving philanthropy and effectiveness in our sector. Aligned with the efforts of Central Texas Education Funders Common Indicator Initiative, I hope you will join in this interactive learning session!

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Adopt CTEF's Common Indicators

We are excited to have learned that in developing their new data driven Ed-Fi Program, The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation heavily reverenced and incorporated Central Texas Educations Funders' College Readiness & Access Common Indicators. We are proud and gratified that such a distinguished member of CTEF is using and validating our work to provide grantmakers and grantseekers with tools and language to speak the same language when talking evaluation. Metrics are increasingly important in the non-profit sector and its important that we work together to define the parameters of the discussion. 

Thank you Michael & Susan Dell Foundation!

For more information on the Common Indicators Project visit that section of our website.

Innovation+

Yesterday CTEF members sat down with Dennis Cavner and Suzi Sosa to learn about an "innovative" new organization called Innovation+. A special project under Austin Community Foundation, the impetus for Innovation+  was identifying the three things that a NPO really needs to grow and thinking about how those can be provided.

Innovation+ says that non-profits need:

1. Growth capital (because currently most of the capital in non-profits is project-based)
2. A mind-share of smart, creative people
3. Human capital to move things forward.

Taking cures from the venture capital work, Innovation+ looks for programs that are on the cusp of transforming from a small non-profit to a larger-scale organization and have high growth potential. They look for organizations that are doing a innovative service, that have proven success, and have the potential to grow given the necessary monetary and human capital.

Even though they are not exclusively considering education non-profits, they have chosen College Forward as their first partner. By doing the due-diligence that is required whenever a grant or a donation is made to an organization, Innovation+ has vetted the organization's model. They have identified College Forward as a viable investment and will proceed to work as something of an agent of their behalf. The idea behind Innovation+ isn't to provide scale funding themselves, it is to help their partner non-profits to find this funding. Through existing connection and extensive networking, Innovation+ intends to become champions for the partners, shopping the idea to people and companies that can provide human and/or monetary capital.

There are other models for this kind of thing. Social Venture Partners is an example that existed in Austin in the 1990s. Under that model, a group of organizations would donate to a communal pot and then distribute the funds to promote growth. Unlike that model, Innovation+ intents to be the link that connects motivated, well organized, strategically versed non-profits with folks that want to help, but maybe don't have the resources to do the research and find a group to support. 

One of their great hopes is that by helping non-profits to grow and scale their work (College Forward has expanded into Houston and plans to continue bringing their model to more cities in the near future) that they can transform the non-profit world from fragmented to united. 

"Non-profits don't have to be little local things where the wheel has to be recreated in every city."  - Susi Sosa, RGK Center/Innovation+

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Organizations like CTEF Members can play a special role in helping Innovation+ succeed. One of the reasons this model holds promise is because unlike an organization asking for donations themselves, they can present a complete package or investment deal that has been thoroughly researched and reviewed and is considered to be a good investment. As area funders, we have worked with and written grants to many potential Innovation+ Partners. By providing testimonials for those non-profits we lend credibility to the deal and that helps to attract investors. Contact us at info@centraltexasedfunders.org if you'd like to get involved and we can connect you with Innovation+.

-- Kate Stark, CTEF Graduate Intern

(For more information about Innovation+ check them out in the Austin Business Journal)