Citing Success, America’s Promise Answers Critics and Vows to Continue

Facing lingering criticism that it generates more publicity than charitable work, America’s Promise-the Alliance for Youth, is out to prove its worth.

On its second anniversary, the group — created at the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future, in Philadelphia, to monitor a national campaign to help needy kids — has released results of a study conducted by a New York accounting and consulting company, PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study found that the work of America’s Promise has reached more than 10 million kids and added at least $295-million worth of cash, in-kind gifts, and volunteer time to youth services.

The organization, which encourages companies, charities, and government agencies to promise to help youngsters, has also published a 643-page report listing all the commitments it has collected so far.

And the organization, located in this Washington suburb, is touting a soon-to-be-released study of three cities by independent researchers. The study found that America’s Promise has helped to set in motion or sustain local interest in helping young people.

Most important, perhaps, the group’s enormously popular chairman, Gen. Colin L. Powell, has been out stumping for the group, making television appearances and meeting with reporters.

“I think we’ve caught the wind with this crusade,” General Powell said in a speech last month at the National Press Club, in Washington. He held up this year’s hefty progress report and last year’s relatively slim one and said of the new volume: “The reason this is such a good report, such a big report, is that more and more people have come forward. Corporations have come forward, religious institutions have come forward, communities have come forward, average American citizens have come forward and said: ‘We want to be part of this crusade.’”

Still, not everyone is convinced that America’s Promise is living up to its own promises.

Few dispute that the group — and, in particular, General Powell — has brought attention to the needs of young people and highlighted the work of charities trying to help them. What is at issue, though, is just how much value the $6-million-a-year organization brings to the youth-services field. Critics contend that many of the efforts that America’s Promise takes credit for instigating would have happened anyway, and that the group just adds an expensive layer of bureaucracy to a non-profit field already strapped for cash.

“The question is, Is it a real priority for the field to have a $6-million booster club?” says Bill Treanor, publisher of Youth Today, a non-profit newspaper based in Washington.

Such questions have taken on added significance now that America’s Promise has scrapped its initial plan to close its doors next year. When the group was created at the Philadelphia summit in 1997, it was intended to be a three-year project to help two million at-risk kids.

But America’s Promise has moved away from that goal now, in part, says General Powell, because it wasn’t ambitious enough. More young people can be — and already have been — touched by the group’s efforts, he says. In addition, General Powell says he wants to move away from doing what he calls body counts.

Most of all, General Powell says, he recognizes that it takes time to develop relationships with the companies and charities America’s Promise is working with, and to shepherd the commitments it has collected. In addition, he says, it will take at least five to ten years to measure whether America’s Promise is making a difference in the lives of young people. Over time, he says, its efforts can be evaluated by examining, for example, the incidence of drug use among young people and the rates of teen-age pregnancy.

Even then, however, observers say that it will be difficult to pin down whether such changes in society can be attributed to the efforts of any one organization, especially one like America’s Promise that does not deliver any direct services, or even focus on any one area, such as violence prevention.

America’s Promise acts more as a broker, encouraging other organizations to step up their efforts to provide young people with at least one of the five things it has identified as crucial: a consistent relationship with an adult; a good education; a safe place to play, live, and go to school; adequate health care; and a chance to perform community service.

Now that America’s Promise is in it for the long haul, observers say, the group needs to clarify its goals and accomplishments.

“People were more willing to just play along with America’s Promise when it was a short-term thing,” says Jon Van Til, director of the program in citizenship and service education at Rutgers University. “No one can argue that having General Powell talk about helping kids wasn’t a boost for everyone. But now that they are in a long-term position, they will be charged with taking the next step — monitoring commitments, asking the tough questions: How much is new? How much is actually being done? What is the effect, beyond the numbers, on kids?”

Officials at America’s Promise say that the latest progress report and the PricewaterhouseCoopers study are good indicators that the charity is moving in the right direction.

They also say that America’s Promise is improving its own systems for tracking commitments and is doing more to insure that the commitments — submitted most often by national companies and national charities — are filtering down to action at the local level. One way the group plans to do that, the officials say, is by connecting local non-profit groups with national corporations offering their resources.

America’s Promise is also doing more to cooperate with other charities. Officials at other non-profit groups have criticized America’s Promise for being a high-profile outsider that swooped into their territory with its own agenda.

“In the beginning, we were not welcomed with open arms,” says Peter Gallagher, president of America’s Promise. “We were the new kid on the block, and there was a lot of hype and hoopla, and General Powell was a national hero, and everybody wished that he were their chairman.” He adds, “We didn’t do nearly as good a job at communicating and reaching out in the beginning as I wish we had.”

In February, the organization invited a group of charity leaders to meet and discuss their concerns, as well as to make suggestions for ways that America’s Promise could collaborate more effectively with other groups. The organization plans to hold more such meetings in the coming months. It is also putting together a permanent advisory panel of charity leaders.

Other changes are under way at America’s Promise, too. After swearing off lobbying during its first two years, the group now plans to press for legislation that helps kids. It may even seek federal aid for its own efforts, too.

“I didn’t want to be a lobbyist,” General Powell said in an interview with The Chronicle. “I didn’t want to start America’s Promise off looking like another claimant out there, existing for the purpose of going after government money.” But, he adds: “I see how there is such a momentum building for these kinds of things.”

General Powell says he plans to push for such legislation as a bill now pending in Congress that would authorize $10-billion to be spent over the next five years on education and development programs for young children.

One reason General Powell is considering seeking federal funds for his own operations is that he needs to find a way for the organization to finance its $6-million annual budget beyond this year. It has hired a fund raiser, and the group plans to tap foundations and corporations for gifts.

Nevertheless, officials at America’s Promise say they are sensitive to the fear among other charities that America’s Promise will compete with them for support. To stave off such concerns, officials make clear that America’s Promise has no plans to increase its budget or expand its 55-person staff. They also say that their own fund-raising efforts and their work to help young people will shake out new money for other non-profit groups.

“To those who say we are out there competing for a finite source of funding, I’d say, ‘Look here, here’s $295-million generated to support your work that is directly attributable to America’s Promise,’” says Mr. Gallagher, referring to the results of the consultants’ study. “I think that should end the conversation.”

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Copies of the executive summary of the PricewaterhouseCoopers study, “Performance Measurement Study of America’s Promise’s Commitments,” are available at no charge from Michael Cosgrove, Washington Consulting Practice, 12902 Federal Systems Park Drive, Fairfax, Va. 22033; (703) 322-5922; e-mail: michael.l.cosgrove@us.pwcglobal.com.

Copies of the report on three cities where America’s Promise has worked, conducted by Public/Private Ventures, in Philadelphia, and the Search Institute, in Minneapolis, will be available this month from the Search Institute, 700 South Third Street, Suite 210, Minneapolis 55415; (612) 376-8955; and from Public/Private Ventures, 2005 Market Street, Suite 900, Philadelphia 19103; (215) 557-4400.

“Report to the Nation 1999,” published by America’s Promise, can be obtained for $14.25 plus $5 for shipping by calling the organization at (800) 292-6430. More information on the report can be found on the group’s Web site (http://www.americaspromise.org).