CSSL Research
CSSL research advances knowledge of social impact in the service of social action and social change.
CSSL prioritizes participatory action research, an approach to research in communities that emphasizes participation and action. Participatory action research emphasizes collective inquiry and experimentation grounded in experience and social history (Reason, P. and Bradbury, H. (2008) (eds) The Sage Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice). Participatory action practitioners make a concerted effort to integrate three basic aspects of their work: participation (life in society and democracy), action (engagement with experience and history), and research (soundness in thought and the growth of knowledge; Chevalier, J.M. and Buckles, D.J. (2013) Participatory Action Research: Theory and Methods for Engaged Inquiry).
Researchers, practitioners and beneficiaries all play an active role. Researchers engage with practitioners and beneficiaries in defining research goals, designs and methods. Practitioners help frame research goals, data collection methods, interpretation of findings and dissemination of results. Beneficiaries help to conceptualize the research, research design, data collection and dissemination.
Recent CSSL Research
Nonprofit Board Chief Governance Officer (CGO) Pilot
A LEADERSHIP AND CAPACITY BUILDING RESEARCH INITIATIVE OF THE CENTER FOR SOCIAL SECTOR LEADERSHIP AT THE BERKELEY HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS.
CGO GOVERNANCE CHECKLIST
Governance is often an ephemeral topic, so much so that many directors have very different working definitions. In recent research summarized in “Does Your Nonprofit Board Need a CGO?”(opens in a new tab) we heard that a comprehensive list of governance quality questions could help nonprofit Boards assess and improve their performance. In response, we compiled a working list of questions that cover the range of board responsibilities usually associated with effective nonprofit governance.
NONPROFIT BOARD CGO PILOT
1. WHAT IS THE NONPROFIT BOARD CGO PILOT?
- This pilot program was created by CSSL faculty Paul Jansen and research associate and MBA Helen Hatch following a year-long research project about nonprofit board governance. Over 30 nonprofit board and executive leaders were interviewed on various aspects of board governance. The pilot aims to test the research question: does create and supporting a Chief Governance Officer (CGO) position on the board improve nonprofit governance as measured by the pre/post difference in a self-reported assessment of governance responsibilities?
2. WHAT WILL I LEARN OR TAKE AWAY FROM THIS PROGRAM?
Participants will:
- Complete a pre and post-assessment of your nonprofit board’s oversight and compliance across the following governance dimensions: legal, human resources, financial oversight, and accountability, effective decision making aligned with organizational mission and strategic direction, ensuring that the organization has the appropriate leadership and resources, and the structure in place to monitor performance and evaluate the Executive Director and overall organizations effectiveness and impact. This powerful tool will inform the nonprofit organizations’ governance is adequate to fulfill the boards’ responsibilities, and reveal areas of growth and opportunity.
- Form and participate in a network of 20 nonprofit organizations that will participate in this research project that informs and advances the field of nonprofit leadership and governance.
- Receive a CGO training/certificate in Nonprofit Governance and join a CGO discussion group as part of the first year of the pilot program.
- Bonus: We are actively seeking partners to support this research project, including securing grant funding to pass through participating organizations to support their effectiveness.
3. DOES MY ORGANIZATION QUALIFY FOR THIS PILOT?
We are seeking organizations across a diverse spectrum of budget and board size, issue area, geographic location (limited to the United States) and populations served. Organizations with a minimum budget size of $1M and above are encouraged to apply.
Interested in learning more? We invite you to contact the authors at [email protected] and [email protected].
Fostering Effective Innovation in Philanthropy: Bold Approaches to Shape Strategy and Culture
This paper has been produced to highlight key areas where foundation grantmaking can use different approaches to innovation that we believe will generate more social impact through philanthropy.
The Multisector Career Arc: The Importance of Cross-Sector Affiliations by Nora Silver and Paul Jansen in California Management Review
This article examines the extent to which current leaders from each of the three sectors (public, private, and nonprofit) have had meaningful cross-sector experience either through full-time employment or through service on boards/commissions or other forms of affiliation. Almost half of all leaders profiled had at least one multisector affiliation and about 15% had four or more. It also explores the costs and benefits of such experiences to them and their organization. Almost every leader interviewed described a logical, but serendipitous path that created a unique, unforeseeable, and often very rewarding set of opportunities and experiences. Their profiles also suggest the emergence of a new career path in which leaders garner developmentally rich, career-accelerating experiences, often in parallel, by virtue of part-time cross-sector affiliations in addition to traditional employment.
Leveraging Social Sector Leadership by Laura Callanan, Nora Silver and Paul Jansen in a special publication of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) and Berkeley-Haas.
Strong leadership is critical for effective social sector organizations, yet the sector chronically underinvests in its leaders. What do social sector leaders need to help them succeed and, just as importantly, stay in the sector? What can grantmakers do to support these leaders? This publication synthesizes findings from new research conducted by the authors and offers recommendations for grantmakers.
Leveraging social sector leadership: Opportunities for family philanthropy, a blog posted on National Center for Family Philanthropy, Family Giving News by Lori Bartczak and Nora Silver
Four Network Principles for Collaboration Success
by Jane Wei-Skillern, Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley and Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Nora Silver, Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley published in Foundation Review
This article identifies a set of four counterintuitive principles that are critical to collaboration success and offers insights for how social sector leaders can ensure that their collaborations can have an impact that is dramatically greater than the sum of the individual parts. Based on a decade of research developing detailed case studies on a range of successful networks, the authors have identified a common pattern of factors that are essential to effective networking.