In a world where both resources for policy research and the attention spans to take it in are finite—that is, in the real world—less can definitely be more. Less research can mean that there’s more money and time for the activities other than data collection, analysis, and synthesis—more time and money, that is, for the …
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The Open Government Partnership (OGP), which doesn’t get as much attention as many other international initiatives—or as much as it deserves—will hold its global summit next week in Mexico City. Launched in September 2011 by the presidents of the United States and Brazil, the OGP describes itself as “an …
Take care when taking out that checkbook. (Photo Credit: jridgewayphotography, licensed under CC BY ND 2.0) I usually sleep soundly, but there are nights when work worries keep me up. The number one cause of a restless night: wondering whether a grant we made with the best of intentions is, in fact, making a partner organization worse …
David Sanger is the chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times. During his 30-year career with the paper, he has written about everything from the investigation into the causes of the space shuttle Challenger disaster to North Korea’s nuclear program, and has twice been a member of teams that won the Pulitzer Prize. He is a Senior …
I was born January 1, 1961 to a working class family in a small town in the U.S. Midwest—a New Year’s baby. My parents weren’t concerned about whether I would finish high school, let alone the risk that I would graduate unable to read or do math well enough to participate fully in society. But …
The Industrial Revolution. The Digital Revolution. The French Revolution. The American Revolution. Whether economic or technological in nature, social or political, they all have one thing in common: what came after was fundamentally different than what came before, and the changes wrought could not be ignored. What about the Data Revolution? What kind of revolution …
When the Sustainable Development Goal Declaration is agreed by heads of state at the United Nations next week, there will be cheers—and jeers. The jeers will come from people who see a long list of lofty goals and no practical path to achieving them; and from those who see little connection between the pontificating of, …
Thomas is a second grade teacher at Okum Primary School, an hour’s drive from Lira in northern Uganda. Each day, he and his co-teacher, Jacqueline, have the responsibility of teaching 120 second graders how to read, write, and calculate, among other skills they’ll need to prepare themselves for a bright future. Next door their colleague …
Don’t overthink this. Get your reports in on time. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons) Not long ago, I wrote to my contact at a grantee organization, pleading for him to send in long overdue final reports that were required by the original terms of the grant. The work we’d funded had gone well—by all measures a…
If you’re in the business of running a nonprofit, there are bad grants and there are good grants. And then, once in a while, there are great grants. A bad grant is one that is underfunded, relative to what needs to be accomplished; or one that commits an organization to activities that distract from its …