Selection Process

December 2011

The Social Impact Exchange’s Contribution Center is a web-based platform featuring high-performing nonprofits. It contains detailed program and financial information which is made available to philanthropic funders. The nonprofits on the platform form a select group of organizations that have both third-party evidence of their impact and are growing and scaling up their impact. As a result, they form a small subset of nonprofits that donors can have confidence will make a difference in the lives of a growing number of people. A number of financial institutions, including major donor-advised funds, a private bank and a multi-family office, have agreed to pilot this initiative, sharing this platform with their high-net worth philanthropic clients to increase funding for these high-performing, scaling organizations.

The Exchange has created a multi-layered vetting and Selection Process to evaluate evidence-based, scaling nonprofits for the Contribution Center.  More than 150 experts and leaders have participated in a cross–sector collaborative effort to identify, review and select the nonprofits on the center.  Additional organizations will be added each month.

1.  Nominations 
   The Exchange seeks nominations of nonprofits for the Contribution Center from intermediaries and engaged funders or experts who have substantial knowledge of the nominated organization. Nominators are sent Eligibility Requirements and asked to identify organizations with whom they have conducted due diligence. Click to nominate organizations that meet eligibility requirements.
    
2. Exchange Review 

   The Exchange staff reviews the nominated nonprofits to ensure they meet the Eligibility Requirements. If so, the nominees’ materials are then sent to two members of the Review Group and a professional evaluation expert to be reviewed and scored. 
    

3. Review Group

   The Exchange has put together a Review Group of experts drawn from the Exchange’s membership. Reviewers have been individually solicited to participate based on their experience working with scaling nonprofits or their expertise in organizational management and/or capacity building with nonprofits. They are drawn from a variety of sources including foundations that have invested in scaling initiatives, evaluation firms, consulting firms, researchers and advisors. 

   Each organization that meets the Eligibility Requirements is reviewed by at least two reviewers. These reviewers use the Exchange’s selection tool to rate the organization. The Review Group is evaluating these organizations on dimensions primarily related to their evidence of effectiveness and their organizational capacity and readiness to grow.

   The selection tool and methodology has been created based on the Due Diligence Framework for Scaling Initiatives that was developed collectively by the members of the Social Impact Exchange’s Market Development Working Group and the members of the Alliance for Effective Social Investing. This combined effort is built on years of work from evaluation firms such as MDRC and Public/Private Ventures, funders of scaling efforts and hands-on intermediaries who have been scaling up nonprofits over the last decade. The methodology will evolve over time into new versions based on feedback from its use and refinements suggested by members of these two groups. 
    

4. Evaluation Experts

   Evaluation experts are retained by the Exchange to assess a program’s evaluation study(ies) and rate its level of evidence. The professional evaluators assess the soundness and statistical integrity of the evaluation studies.  
    

5. Final Selection 

   The Exchange staff calculates the combined score from the Review Group and Evaluation Expert. They then review the score and the input from reviewers to determine whether the organization meets the Exchange’s baseline level of acceptability. If so, the organization is approved and the scores are then used to sequence the order in which the organizations are added to the Contribution Center. At this point, Exchange staff work with the organizations to post their detailed program and financial information to the site.

   The Exchange is currently developing a process to provide feedback to all nominated organizations based on the comments received  from the Review Group and Evaluation Experts in the hope that all organizations can benefit from the experts who have reviewed these groups.

For more information on how to nominate an organization that meets the above criteria, kindly contact Jennie Agmi at jagmi@growthphilanthropy.org.