Reasons to be Cheerful

I seem to have been doing a lot of cheering over the past few days. Here's why. First, someone drew my attention to Gara LaMarche's keynote address at the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York Symposium at the end of February, called 'Building for Capacity for Maximum Impact', available here. GLM is, of course, the relatively new boss of Atlantic Philanthropies, a significant funder of nonprofit evaluations (some of which yours truly has worked on). In it, he is candidly critical of much of what has passed for conventional wisdom in the field of evaluation, which is rather remarkable not least because AP itself has promoted much of that wisdom, with its love of logic models etc. GLM steps back, and takes a common-sense view of the whole business; it's well worth reading in full. But for a flavour, try this: he says -

I propose a three- year moratorium on logic models, theories of change and the like that use geometric shapes and arrows, particularly when arranged in a circular or oval form. I’ve never seen one of these that is not absurdly reductionist. I just threw that in to upset people, particularly those among my own staff and consultants. But if it results in a world with fewer Power Point slides, I feel I will have accomplished something important in my time on Earth.

...and this -

...remember that the lessons of business, the experience of the private sector, have much to teach non-profits but many limitations as well........ I would argue that most enduring successful business ventures must also have social value, but it’s also true that you can be successful in making money, at least for a while, by riding roughshod over community values – look at Wal-Mart’s impact on small business in small towns and rural communities, or the rapacious gains of certain extractive industries. Social investments, on the other hand, can’t be measured only in dollars and cents, and the bottom line has many components.

Which brings me neatly to my second reason for cheering which is Michael Edwards' new book, Just Another Emperor?, which dares to take on the philanthrocapitalists and their largely unchallenged conventional wisdoms. He unpicks what he calls the hype surrounding philanthrocapitalism, and examines the evidence (or lack thereof) which underpins it. But he does it in a constructive and balanced way; this is not mere polemic. This short book (92pp plus extensive endnotes) is essential reading for philanthropoids interested in social change and social justice.

Now, cheers usually come in threes, and there is a third reason for cheering, albeit one which isn't a close fit with the core purpose of this blog, but what the heck, it's my blog and if I say it goes in, it goes in. I've just read Obama's race speech in full and found it amazing - it's the sort of speech Bartlet would give (and we West Wing fantasists constantly had to remind ourselves that, sadly, that was fiction). Of course, it might not help him win the White House, but all praise to him for delivering it - read the full text here. With such a man in the White House, who knows what might be possible?

Is it socially just to let me travel free on the buses?

Emerging from a long weekend of partying, to mark the State's sudden burst of generosity towards me (free bus pass, cheap entry to theatres, museums etc, free prescriptions), I'm bound to wonder whether this is a wise use of your and my taxes. My good chum David - who, aged 60, has a well-paid fulltime professional job - told me the other day that he'd reckoned in that week alone he'd had £60 ($120 approx) of benefits by virtue of his age. That's over £3000 in a full year, in an ageing population. It just isn't sustainable. But neither is the problem solved by saying "Well, just give it to people who aren't in fulltime work, then"; for someone aged over 60 who is employed on a minimum, or near-minimum, wage, then these benefits - and perhaps especially the travel and prescriptions - will be vital supports. So - does it come back to some form of means-testing? And can that be done in a way which doesn't scare people off or deter them from saving?

There's another, slightly insidious, aspect to all this. If one is fortunate enough to be reasonable healthy, as I am (or will be, when I've recovered from the partying), and particularly if one is still working which I am (or will be, until would-be clients read this blog), then turning 60 isn't likely to mean that you suddenly start thinking of yourself as 'old'. But then, along comes the State, pats you on the head, offers you a seat and a pile of benefits, simply on account of your age. So, then you do start to think "Well, if the State thinks I'm worthy of all this stuff, then maybe I am old", which isn't, to my way of thinking, a very sensible frame of mind into which to get.

And all this is happening when the Government is failing to meet its targets to abolish child poverty. Something wrong somewhere. I will ponder all this as I walk to the station to get my Senior Railcard. Now, where did I put the Alka Seltzer?