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Business Education

Avoiding
inby Thomas
Philanthropy the Madonna Effect
J. Tierney and Joel Fleishman
April 05, 2011

The collapse of Madonna’s high-profile effort to build a school for


impoverished girls in Malawi has made headlines around the
world. The singer’s celebrity and the $3.8 million lost in the effort
guaranteed that. But in philanthropy, failure is an almost
everyday occurrence. Giving money away smartly, so that it not
only gets results but also gets more and better results over time, is
excruciatingly hard. Not for nothing are many social problems
called “intractable.”

Beyond the sheer difficulty of issues like generational poverty,


failing schools and crippling diseases, donors also must grapple
with a paramount and terrible truth: in philanthropy, excellence
is self-imposed.

There are no external pressures to retain customers, outperform


competitors or please shareholders. The pressure to deliver great
results — the very definition of “great” — is largely a function of
the individual donor or foundation. It’s easy to write a check, but
difficult to have impact. Philanthropy’s natural state is
satisfactory underperformance.
Satisfactory underperformance does not have to be the norm.
Consider a different story of philanthropic investment in
education: the partnership between the Fisher family and the
Knowledge is Power Program Foundation, better known as KIPP.
When Don Fisher stepped down as chief executive of Gap, he and
his wife Doris looked for ways to increase their involvement in
philanthropy. A graduate of San Francisco public schools, with a
longstanding commitment to helping children, he was becoming
increasingly concerned about their fate in school. Charter
schools, with greater freedom over hiring, budgets and
leadership, seemed the best way to tackle education’s huge
problems. They also had another advantage: successful efforts
could be copied around the country.

After a full year of searching and learning, the Fishers narrowed


their focus to the Knowledge Is Power Program. At the time, KIPP
was just two middle schools in Houston and New York City, but it
fit the Fishers’ excellence standards on every dimension. It had a
strong, results-oriented approach to education. Expectations for
students were high. The organization had a sharp focus on
making college the goal for all students. And the visionary co-
founders, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, had solid ideas about
how to spread the approach to other cities.

The Fishers committed $15 million over three years to help KIPP
start to achieve its national ambitions. From their frequent
communication with the organization’s leaders, they ealized that
KIPP needed more than direct contributions to make a real
difference in kids’ lives. For starters, the schools had to have the
right teachers and principals to succeed. Where were they to be
found? When the Fishers learned that two-thirds of KIPP
principals were alumni of Teach for America, they began to make
big gifts to help that organization grow. Today, 28% of KIPP
teachers are teachers or alumni from Teach for America.
The Fishers also worked with KIPP to create a year-long program
to prepare individuals to open and lead high-performing KIPP
schools. Through such programs, KIPP has developed and
retained its outstanding faculty, and 73% of KIPP school leaders
began as KIPP teachers. The Fishers and KIPP also strove to learn
what was working and what wasn’t. When bad news came, they
wanted it unvarnished. KIPP’s public, annual report card, which
publishes the results of every KIPP school, was Don Fisher’s idea.

The results speak for themselves: Since 2000, KIPP has grown to
99 schools in 19 states plus Washington, D.C., teaching more than
26,000 students. A total of 95% of students that complete eighth
grade with KIPP graduate from high school, versus the national
average of less than 70%. Also, 88% of KIPP eighth-grade
graduates have gone on to college, far above the national average,
which is below 50%. KIPP is nationally recognized as the gold
standard in charter education.

Flashy failures make the headlines. But more than ever, engaged
donors like the Fishers are setting a high bar for themselves and
working to create powerful results. They recognize that while
generosity — giving big — is clearly valued, it is essential for
society that philanthropists also give smart. By doing so, they
bring themselves the deep joy that come from using one’s gifts to
the fullest.

Thomas J. Tierney is chairman and co-founder of The Bridgespan


Group and former worldwide managing director of Bain &
Company. Joel Fleishman is a professor of law and public policy at
Duke University. Their new book, Give Smart: Philanthropy That
Gets Results, was released last week by PublicAffairs.

TT
Thomas J. Tierney is chairman and co-founder
of The Bridgespan Group and former
worldwide managing director of Bain &
Company. Joel Fleishman is a professor of law
and public policy at Duke University. Their new
book, Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets
Results, was released by PublicAffairs.

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