Taking Feedback Seriously at Plan International

There is a growing understanding that constituent feedback is crucial to development work. The terms “feedback” and “listening” now permeate our collective discussions, so much so that Lucy Bernholz has made “Constituent Feedback” one of the top buzzwords in her recently published Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2014. As Lucy notes, however, feedback is[…]

Keystone makes the list

Yesterday saw the the launch of Lucy Bernholz’s Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2014. The Blueprint is an annual industry forecast written by leading philanthropy scholar Lucy Bernholz about the social economy — private capital used for public good. In her fifth annual industry forecast, Lucy uses both the American and European landscapes to[…]

Haiti’s potential train wreck

Haiti’s railway lines, which were laid in the 19th century, fell into disrepair long ago. But there is growing evidence of another kind of train wreck waiting to happen. This one has nothing to do with rolling stock; it’s about the fate of the tens of thousands of Haitian citizens desperate to get back on[…]

A bold solution to the public service delivery crisis in South Africa

Public service delivery in South Africa is in crisis. Service delivery protests are increasing dramatically and becoming more violent. Government has tried many ways of engaging citizens through public forums, presidential hotlines and facility-based complaints mechanisms, but has not yet found a way of ensuring what citizens say becomes part of how government monitors and[…]

This is what 3,000 local partners of International NGOs think…

After almost four years, 62 participating international NGOs and over 3,000 responses from local partners to our Development Partnerships Survey, Keystone is proud to present a short report (it’s only 8 pages long!) on what we are learning so far. The headlines are: Financial support is well administrated by INGOs, but often conditions are too[…]

Overcoming the Courtesy Bias in Constituent Feedback

When I was working for a large NGO, I spent part of my time trying to make the organization more accountable to local partners and beneficiaries. My task was to understand how well our accountability practices were working and to explore how to improve them. Many interesting things came out of our surveys and focus[…]

Keystone publishes its first Technical Note on Constituent Voice methodology

When you look at a list of Keystone clients, you might well ask yourself, “What can these organizations possibly have in common?” They range from the world’s largest commercial carpet manufacturer to the President’s Office in South Africa. Our clients are tackling poverty, reducing environmental impact, enhancing smallholder agriculture, battling disease, fighting crime, creating jobs,[…]