We value:
Equity: A vision of an equitable New York City is at the heart of all our work. And we seek to do this through all of our activities: grantmaking, programmatic initiatives, operating practices internally and externally.
Trust: We thrive on relationships grounded in mutual trust and respect, and seek to imbue those traits into every interaction—whether it is with a grantee partner, an individual leader, a funder, a collaborator or an ally.
Humility: Our commitment to humility reflects our belief that our grantee partners are the mission-driven, field-expert professionals. They know best how to spend the grant awards, invest in themselves, and measure success, so we empower them to be good stewards of the resources.
Boldness: Change doesn’t come from ‘philanthropy as usual’. We want to take smart risks in the interest of reaping significant rewards. Complex challenges require fresh approaches. Not all will succeed, and even those that do may take time, but each will represent an important step in affecting growth and progress.
Clarity: We are clear in our focus, investing in the potential and capacity of leaders to drive and make change. Clarity requires good communication and transparency, and so we strive to be open and accessible to all stakeholders.
Evaluation
Why we evaluate our work:
Understanding our impact and being open to improvement helps us be a better partner to our grantee organizations.
We hope to generate evidence for the effectiveness of trust-based philanthropy approaches and leadership development as a strategy for achieving equity.
We hope that being accountable and evaluating our work engenders trust.
What we are trying to accomplish with our grantmaking
We want our grantees to use our support as they see fit. That doesn’t mean we don’t have expectations for how we can help them.
For newer grantees, our flexible funding can help them defray costs so they have "breathing room.” That, combined with participating in our convenings where they get to learn from and network with each other, can help them build capacity.
Over time, our support can help grantees have the space and resources to focus on their core work.
In addition to impacting individual organizations, we expect to have a more collective and systemic impact, boosting the health of the New York City nonprofit leadership sector.
Ultimately, we hope to help move the needle of philanthropy funding for human capital development, especially using general operating support.
How we evaluate our work:
We use two evaluation tools to assess our grantmaking impact.
Working with grantees, RSCF has developed assessment tools that include:
CHAT (Check-in Analysis Tool), which replaces site visits and written grantee reporting as an annual conversation between foundation staff and grantees. The CHAT lets us hear about what our grantees are doing, how they’re using our funding, and what impact our funding is having on their organizations. The CHAT also directly assesses the trust we build with grantees.
Convening surveys, that examine whether grantees find our facilitated grantee gatherings meaningful for learning, building connections, and peer exchange.
Our evaluators aggregate and share findings from each assessment tool so that we can reflect on whether we are reaching our goals, and how we might change our practice. We have shared findings from time to time and are currently figuring out how to do so more regularly and transparently.