25:40

THE REES-JONES FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER

By Adrian Cook, Director of Research & Evaluation

“Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever…”  Proverbs 27:23-24

Two of the most important concepts around philanthropy are stewardship and storytelling. God has blessed everyone with the capacity to share, but there are special missions and responsibilities that call us to a level of philanthropy that we should be especially accountable for.

At The Rees-Jones Foundation we respond to stories. The authors of a book on communication strategy remind us that “Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts…”[i] Those who have experienced our grant application might call to mind a process that is about technical questions and budgets. But hopefully they have also found an application that allows for telling a story – a story that includes setting, characters, problems, events (or activities), and resolution. We love a plot that brings to mind questions about possibilities and ends with hope!

We also care that hope is more than a story plot, but is a reality that children, youth, and families tangibly experience. Nonprofit organizations are the direct hands and feet that deliver hope, and we know that they care about constituents receiving the benefit of their efforts in a way that changes lives. This is where stewardship intersects with storytelling.

Stewardship requires a feedback loop that is insightful about the way a nonprofit partner is engaging with its constituents and achieving life-changing effects. A way of thinking about the story of an organization is the logic model concept. The logic model elements of need, inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes correlate to the elements of a story and provide a consistent framework for understanding the important elements of an organization and the rationale that leads to a reasonable expectation of impact.

The Foundation appraises all the logic model elements of an organization when considering a grant request, but the evaluation of outputs and outcomes is a particular focus of feedback in grant reporting. We want to know if the story turned out the way we anticipated.

The Rees-Jones Foundation approaches grant reporting with a narrative of our own that includes the following elements:

• Who are the constituents and how many constituents were engaged? In grant reporting this often takes the form of a feedback question about how many were served overall through the programming supported by the Foundation over the grant term.
• How many constituents participated in the programming regularly? Programming by nonprofit organizations typically has a threshold of participation that is required by participants to achieve the desired benefit. In grant reporting, this question is aimed at how many reached a threshold of participation.
• How many constituents achieved the primary benefit of programming? Programming is designed to meet a need. In grant reporting this question is asking for reporting on how many constituents achieved the primary benefit that the programming is designed to impart.
• How else were constituents impacted? Programming can have layers of impact. Beyond the primary benefit we will ask questions about other ways that constituents receive advantages from participating. One of the things that is of particular interest to the Foundation, when applicable, is how programming is building up the Christian faith of those participating.

The Foundation awarded $14.7 million through 34 grants during Q1 (January, February, and March).

By Sara Meyers, Communications Specialist

I remember when I was in 3^rd grade and was asked to be the narrator of my Thanksgiving school play. A friend of mine had wanted the part but I was selected because I had somehow excelled further in class reading goals than she had and I had a deeper speaking voice (yes, even at 10 years old), that just automatically made me a little louder. I remember how proud I was to have my parents in the audience and all my friends listening as I told this sweet Thanksgiving story, while the rest of my classmates acted out their parts in the play.

It’s interesting to think on this time in my life as a third grader because it became increasingly evident when friends of mine started struggling more in school that it was due to reading challenges. Research tells us that “if children cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade, they face daunting hurdles to success in school and beyond… struggling readers rarely catch up with their peers academically and are four times more likely to drop out of high school.” [i] This is why interventions are critical if we want to see our children thrive beyond academics and into adulthood. In my personal journey, I was a very shy child and yet, because of excellent teachers who walked with me through phonics lessons and other reading strategies, I began to cultivate a love of reading and telling stories! They helped instill in me a confidence that I would never have developed had it not been for their encouragement and guidance.

My dad is an avid reader and was faithful to make us turn off the tv shows and open books. He’d even make us read paragraphs of Bible lessons he was reading not only to teach us spiritual truths, but to help us sound out deep theological words (who needs to spell “infallibility” at age 9?) Another family member of mine, who has just discovered a love for reading in the past few years, grew up challenged with undiagnosed dyslexia and struggled to read as a child. In public schools at the time, there were no interventions for her. This led to her shyness and fear of speaking up in class because reading out loud was a nightmare for her. I think a lot about her when I meet children today who feel intimidated at the thought of reading—she has overcome so much to be a reader today and it gives me hope for children now who can have access to help needed for improvement in their reading abilities.

25:40 is a quarterly newsletter from The Rees-Jones Foundation. This newsletter is specially designed for you – our wonderful grantees! We hope that you will find the information both useful and interesting. If you would like to be added to our newsletter email list, please contact Sara Meyers at smeyers@rees-jonesfoundation.org.

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”

– Matthew 25:40

ABOUT THE NAME | We decided to name this newsletter 25:40 after the scripture from Matthew 25, which we as a foundation, draw inspiration from in our work. Through our grant making, we seek to deliver hope, resources, and support to those in our community who are in need.