Practicing Downward Accountability:

Principles and Illustrations

Why Are We Here?Where you sit may determine where you

stand:

Social Entrepreneur…

Philanthropist…

Public Funder…

Public Policy Activist…

Business Owner…

Social Enterprise Manager…

Social Worker…

Researcher/Academic…

Citizen, Parent, Service Recipient…

Concerned Other!

…but there is only one question:

Are we maximizing total performance while generating lasting impact?

Jed Emerson slide adapted with permission

Hypothesis: Relationship metrics are the best available predictor of outcomes and impact.

Analogue: In business, customer loyalty is a proven predictor of growth, profits and share value.

www.KeystoneAccountability.org

The evolution of consumer feedback

In 1962, there was no Customer Satisfaction industry. It was built on the back of the Consumer Rights movement.

It was not so long ago that companies did not feel it necessary to listen to the voice of the consumer!

Detailed, content rich comparative customer feedback data on virtually any product or service is now freely available on the web.

© 2006 J.D. Power and Associates,The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6

Contracts

Information extraction

Accountability for money

State

Reporting: grantee expenditure and activities; ad hoc evaluation

Accountability reporting

Congress

USAIDPEPFA

RMCC

Contractors

Grantees

End Beneficiari

es

Information extraction

Reporting: grantee expenditure and activities

Grants Projects

As it is today

Dialogue for improvement

Dialogue for improvement

State

Accountability reporting; includes

empirically valid feedback

data

Congress

USAIDPEPFA

RMCC

Contractors

Grantees

End Beneficiari

es

Aid policy and practice enhanced by empirically valid feedback from key actors across the value chain

Published Comparative Feedback Data Sets

Contracts Grants Projects

Reporting: grantee expenditure and activities; improved evaluation supplemented byempirically valid feedback

Dialogue for improvement

As transformed by comparative feedback

Reporting: grantee expenditure and activities; supplemented byempirically valid feedback

Empirically valid feedback

Cultivating Constituency Voice (aka downward accountability)

Collecting Feedback

Qualitative and Quantitative Anonymity and confidentiality

The suggestion box Interviews and focus groups

_______________________________________________________

The Game ChangersCell phonesThe Internet

A leading case: the Gates Foundation YouthTruth project

In partnership with the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the Gates Foundation is seeking to understand student perspectives on their experiences in Gate-funded high schools.

Here is how the project is being introduced to the students: http://youthtruthsurvey.org/students/index.php

This is a text book example of the way one can cultivate constituency voice to realize multiple benefits.

Demonstrates how to reconcile across multiple purposes and the interests of different actors in evaluative work generally.

For more information on YouthTruth see http://youthtruthsurvey.org/index.html

YouthTruth Goals and Principles

Key Principles : Foster collaborative process between schools, grantees, and the

Foundation Gather meaningful responses from all students Combine rigorous comparative approach with student voice Create transparent, timely feedback loops for school administrators and

students

Project Goal: To develop a system– to be explored on a pilot basis – for collecting actionable feedback from students about their experiences in Gates-funded high schools

For more information on YouthTruth see http://youthtruthsurvey.org/index.html

YouthTruth Project: early findings

Student voices show variation among participating high schools on multiple themes: Strength of student-adult relationships Rigor of class work and instruction Level of student engagement School culture and attitudes Frequency with which discussions about academic goals are

occurring

Gates implementing partner, Center for Effective Philanthropy is working to understand relationships between themes and certain dependent variables Future potential to explore correlation between student perceptual

data and achievement data, on school-wide basisFor more information on YouthTruth see http://youthtruthsurvey.org/index.html

Example: One School’s ExperienceIllustration of the power of comparative data. Without the comparison we would not understand the significance of the difference between attitudes about likelihood of graduation and options after graduation.

Students’ Likelihood of Graduating

Bottom of range

Top of range

3.0

4.0

5.0

Note: Scale ends at 3.0

1=Very unlikely; 2=Somewhat unlikely

Very likely

Somewhat likely

Neither likely nor unlikely

1-5

Sca

le

25th percentile

75th percentile

50th percentile(median)

Selected Student Comments

• “Drop all these other classes and start helping us get prepared for life.”

• “They could give us classes we actually need. Let us choose our own classes if we know what college we might attend.”

Students at School X believe it is likely

they will graduate, but feel less

optimistic about their options after

graduation.

Increased Options After Graduation

Note: Scale ends at 2.0

Bottom of range

Top of range

50th percentile(median)

25th percentile

75th percentile

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0Strongly agree

1-5

Sca

le

Somewhat disagree

Somewhat agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Increased Options After Graduating

1=Strongly disagree

School X

For more information on YouthTruth see http://youthtruthsurvey.org/index.html

Beyond Self-Reporting

www.KeystoneAccountability.org

It is all about improving performance

www.KeystoneAccountability.org

So if this is so important, why aren’t we doing it?

So if this is so important, why aren’t we doing it? Does not fit our

operating systems

Too complicated

We don’t ask questions that we won’t be able to

respond toIts more fun and rewarding to plan how we can change

the world than to find out we can't Our competitors

don’t do it

It costs money that we don’t

have

The funders want something else

We already know the answer

High risk…and little in it for us

Too busy

Thankyou !David Bonbright

david@keystoneaccountability.org