LIFT president to speak at Stanford Social Innovation Review Webinar

Maria Peña, LIFT’s newly announced inaugural president, will be speaking at the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s “Valuing Frontline Work” webinar on September 23, 2015.

Participants will have access to the live webinar; unlimited access to the webinar as many times as they’d like for twelve months; and downloadable slides. Register now.

Event details are as follows–

Over the past two decades, funders and policymakers have put more pressure on nonprofit organizations to pursue and achieve measurable outcomes. The increasing focus on performance-driven frameworks such as “pay for success” and “social return in investment” signals that such pressure will only grow more intense. For nonprofit professionals, that trend raises troubling questions: What if the ways that your organization makes a difference in people’s lives are not easily measured through conventional performance metrics? What if the logic model of your organization does not fully account for the value that you deliver through direct work with beneficiaries? Funders and policymakers also face a quandary: What if the performance data that you receive do not adequately capture the effectiveness of the nonprofits that you fund?

Lehn Benjamin, associate professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, will lead a discussion of what frontline nonprofit work looks like in practice—and how we can accurately measure the value of that work. Joining Benjamin will be Katya Fels Smyth, founder and CEO of the Full Frame Initiative; Maria Peña, chief program officer of LIFT; and Jesús Gerena, senior vice president of the Family Independence Initiative. In the webinar, these presenters will:

  • Explain how some of the most popular performance models used in the nonprofit sector fail to measure the true impact of what nonprofit professionals do
  • Examine the reasons why it can be so difficult—yet so important—to recognize the value that on-the-ground work delivers to beneficiaries and their communities
  • Explore examples of nonprofits that have succeeded in capturing and conveying the full value of frontline work

“Valuing Frontline Work” will be of interest to nonprofit practitioners whose organizations provide direct services to marginalized groups. The webinar will also be highly relevant to funders, consultants, evaluators, and other professionals who support organizations that engage in such work. During the latter half of the session, registrants will be able to direct questions to Benjamin, Smyth, Peña, and Gerena. Michael Slind of Stanford Social Innovation Review will moderate the webinar.

Price: $49, which includes access to the live webinar; unlimited access to the webinar as many times as you’d like for twelve months; and downloadable slides.

REGISTER HERE

Presented by:

Lehn Benjamin, associate professor of philanthropic studies, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University
Katya Fels Smyth, founder and CEO, Full Frame Initiative
Maria Peña, president, LIFT
Jesús Gerena, senior vice president, Family Independence Initiative

Moderated by:

Michael Slind, senior editor, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Time: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon PDT, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT

The information above was pulled from the Stanford Social Innovation Review website.