As the new year takes hold, we are proud to look back on what we accomplished with our colleagues and partners in 2015, and we are inspired by our aspirations for 2016.
Supporting Client Success
Last year, FSG helped more than 100 major foundations, corporations, and NGOs around the world increase and evaluate their impact in areas such as health, education, agriculture, and economic development. In independent post-engagement interviews, 100% of our clients said we met or exceeded their expectations.
Turning Ideas into Action
We appreciated the opportunity to work with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to implement the thinking from our article on emergent strategy and to support the Kresge Foundation in developing a comprehensive approach to learning and evaluation through our Strategic Learning and Evaluation team. Leveraging FSG’s report on the INGOs of the future, Switzerland-based Terre des Hommes designed an ambitious vision for the organization towards 2030. And we found many new applications for taking a shared value approach, combining business success with social impact, including initiatives at Novo Nordisk, Barclays, and Toyota.
We also explored critical challenges that are at the root of global inequity, including the role of social norms on adolescent girls for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, improved access and quality of specialty care for vulnerable patients on behalf of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, and college access and attainment for Latino students in the U.S. for Lumina Foundation.
Creating Collective Impact
Especially gratifying were the results of several collective impact projects we helped create across the U.S. in juvenile justice reform, early childhood education, and community health outcomes including diabetes, pre-term birth, and substance abuse. Seeing 45% fewer youth in custody in New York State and 32% fewer opioid-related overdose deaths on Staten Island following our work in those regions reaffirmed our conviction that collective impact achieves results.
Our Collective Impact Forum partnership with The Aspen Forum for Community Solutions, funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and others, doubled its online members to 14,000, and more than 50 foundations joined our funder community of practice. We focused increasing attention on the role of equity in collective impact and are exploring a new project with PolicyLink on that topic in 2016. We also will be launching a new capacity-building initiative on Collective Impact Leadership, building on the collaborative leadership work of our Senior Advisor Paul Schmitz and the system leadership work of FSG’s John Kania and Peter Senge.
Companies Changing the World
Our Shared Value Initiative, funded by Nestlé, Intel, MercyCorps, and others, engaged a growing number of corporations and NGOs, expanded our regional affiliate in Australia and launched a new affiliate in India, developed courses on shared value at Harvard Business School, and partnered with Fortune magazine to publish a list of 50 companies changing the world. We are looking forward to the 6th Annual Shared Value Summit in May with an outstanding set of speakers including Jim Kim, President of the World Bank.
Jobs for Opportunity Youth
Through our partnership with Starbucks, the Schultz Family Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and The Aspen Forum for Community Solutions we helped launch the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, which is rapidly becoming one of the largest corporate-led youth employment efforts in the U.S.
Launching FSG India
FSG India, launched a year ago by Ashish Karamchandani, Harvey Koh and their team (formerly at Monitor Deloitte), now numbers 30+ colleagues based in Mumbai. In 2015, the team broadened their pioneering inclusive markets work to property rights and reproductive health in India and vocational training in South Africa, while continuing to help improve the international impact enterprise and investing ecosystem. They also started a 6-year program to scale access to quality early childhood education through the private sector in urban India, with support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Omidyar Network, Central Square Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation, and Douglas B. Marshall Jr. Family Foundation. In 2016, we look forward to bringing our inclusive markets expertise to Africa and the U.S.
Deepening Our Focus and Expertise
In 2015 we welcomed 26 new FSGers who share our passion for social change, including Managing Director Dr. Lauren Smith, who deepens our health expertise as the former medical director and interim commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. With our growing emphasis on system change and equity, we were delighted that Lance Fors of Social Venture Partners and Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink joined our Board of Directors. And we successfully transferred our Community Foundation Insights program to the Foundation Center, where we expect it will reach an even wider audience.
In short, it’s been a whirlwind of a year and we look forward to another year of increasing impact working with all of our clients, partners, and funders around the world.
