Immersed in reading about the impact of philanthropy in the world of education, I started to become focused on finding evidence of measurable effects and returns on investment. Exactly how far ahead are we now?
Then, I called Jeff Peterson, director of Best Buy Community Relations and the Best Buy Children’s Foundation.
He told me that earlier this spring he wrote a reflection on this topic and emailed it to his colleagues at Best Buy. He titled it “If I had a blog.” MCF does, I told him, and so, with his permission, we are posting his thoughts on our blog:
I just spent the day out of the office sitting in on a 9th grade youth retreat. It was conducted in a church basement by one of our foundation’s many grantees (Youth Frontiers) working to improve and empower the state of youth at one of the most formative times of life: early adolescence.
Among my many observations, ranging from the cosmetic (9th graders don’t look or speak the way I did …) to the causal (…. and why don’t they?), I was most struck by the retreat’s closing exercise, which suggested a fundamental difference in how the effectiveness of this day would be measured compared to a typical day in ‘Corporate America.’
With about 45 minutes left in the retreat, the 100+ students formed a large circle around a small candle and amplified microphone. The lead counselor made an invitation to all – including retreat staff, teachers and chaperones – to come forward and share a reflection from the day to take back (or forward) to their school. That was the extent of ground rules.
As expected, some kids were more eloquent than others. Some took longer than others. Some made apologies, others made jokes. A few (with motives left to the imagination) used the time to thank teachers for being good role models. A couple of kids cried. One made another cry (in a good way).
All in all, approximately 15 kids used up nearly 45 minutes of everybody’s time with their open-mic testimonials. Less than 15% of the day’s attendees, about 20% of the day’s time, with 0% quality control.
As I observed this free-form coda to the day, my mind started racing toward productivity and optimization; how many more kids could participate if only there were another microphone or two? Would four small groups afford broader coverage and engagement than one large group? Better yet, what if this was all done on-line – connecting kids across the country, not just across the room? How might retreat leaders ensure retention of key concepts by creating a more consistent format for these individual testimonials? And why aren’t the lights on?
What was introduced as a welcoming, warm invitation to make sense of this day had been reduced, in my mind, to a horribly inefficient bit of programming.
Rather, blessedly inefficient.
Thank God our nonprofit organizations – especially those serving youth, and especially youth at this stage in life – have the clearance and patience to measure their effectiveness not exclusively on throughputs. If holding a microphone and mumbling in front of 100+ peers helps a 15-year-old make sense of her day (life?), and she needs an extra minute or two to get through it, so be it. And if the 15-year-old boy in the back of the room gets more out of listening to her than speaking for himself, let him sit and listen. Don’t make him make up something to reach a contrived ‘participation’ metric. It’s more than meet them where they are – it’s measure them how they are. They have a lifetime of returning, investing, and returning on investing (in whatever form they will be directed to take) ahead of them.
True, there are nonprofit organizations that abuse the patience we ought to afford them – especially in belt-tightening times. Being responsible, accountable stewards for financial and human resources is not an expectation exclusive to the commercial sector. But days like today – removed from the Machine (literal and figurative) – do a good job of reminding me of the only thing I ever really understood from Einstein: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
At least not in the way we might think.
- Jeff Peterson, director of Best Buy Community Relations and the Best Buy Children’s Foundation
As a company, and through its foundation, Best Buy works with nonprofit organizations to support programs that provide opportunities for youth. Through its @15 focus, its goal is to empower teens to thrive by providing positive experiences that will help them excel in school, engage in their communities, and develop life and leadership skills.
Best Buy also supports national organizations that provide essential social services such as the United Way and American Red Cross, to improve the vitality of the communities where its employees and customers live and work.
In addition, the community grants program allows Territory teams to decide how Best Buy Children’s Foundation funds are used to impact their local area. The company also encourages local volunteerism by providing charitable gifts to organizations where employees volunteer.
I interviewed Jeff for MCF’s upcoming summer issue of Giving Forum, which will focus on philanthropy and education.
- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF Communications Associate
