Searching for Solutions: One Fund’s Approach to Finding Top Charities

Three years ago, a flurry of reports in Boston highlighted a distressing trend: While Boston Public School students enroll in college at rates that exceed the national average, only slightly more than a third of those who enroll earn a degree on time.

That led the GreenLight Fund, which brings effective groups to Boston to help solve big problems, on a search to find an organization that had figured out how to support young people so they stay in college and graduate.

Every year GreenLight imports one charity group with proven programs to Boston, and it helps the newcomer raise substantial money, find board members, and meet local decision makers. The fund focuses not just on finding a group that has a track record but also on assessing how well the group is likely to do in Boston.

Careful Vetting

To find the most effective groups, GreenLight staff members, working with a consultant, start by identifying more than 50 potential organizations and reviewing publicly available information like annual reports and federal tax forms.

More than a year ago, GreenLight identified 14 charities from which it sought additional information, including budgets and audits. GreenLight held two-hour conference calls with leaders of eight of the organizations, and then trimmed the number to four. Those four final candidates were presented to a volunteer committee that aids the selection process.

After the committee chose two finalists, GreenLight conducted site visits at the organizations’ existing locations. It also discussed the groups being considered with leaders of local charities and foundations, potential competitors and collaborators, and experts in the field to ensure that the programs the groups provided would be well received in Boston.

“If you spend all your time on the selection process, but none on the ecosystem that you’ll be putting the group into, you’re going to have post-graft rejection,” says John Simon, a venture capitalist and a co-founder of GreenLight.

Finally, executives from the two charity finalists visited Boston to pitch their programs to the committee, which makes the ultimate recommendation. Last year, it selected Single Stop USA, which helps low-income individuals and families tap into public benefits, tax credits, and other essential services.

That mission may seem unrelated to the initial problem identified in Boston—getting more college students to graduation. But Single Stop locates its services on college campuses. The financial benefits that come from working with Single Stop enable more students to stay in school and graduate.

“Students at a community college shouldn’t be forced to choose between groceries and graduation,” says Nate Falkner, Single Stop USA’s vice president for strategy and technology. “The resources that we provide function as an expanded form of financial aid.”

GreenLight has already raised more than $750,000 for Single Stop’s Boston chapter.

Close Follow-Up

Charities that have won GreenLight’s annual competition say the fund continues to work closely with them for years afterward. Peer Health Exchange, a nine-year-old charity that uses college students to provide health education to ninth-graders, was tapped by GreenLight in 2007. The charity will work with about two-thirds of the ninth graders in Boston Public Schools this year, compared with fewer than half of public-school students in the other four cities in which it operates.

The charity attributes the greater penetration in Boston to the $900,000 raised locally by GreenLight, as well as the smaller size of the Boston district compared with that of other locations like New York and Los Angeles.

Louise Langheier, Peer Health Exchange’s chief executive, says GreenLight cares deeply about the impact of the charity’s programs and expects studies documenting effectiveness. In 2013, the charity will begin an evaluation of how the progress of students who participate in its program compares with that of a control group.

“We’re also obsessed with learning more about our impact and how to drive more of it, so it’s been a great match,” Ms. Langheier says.