Leading a Reduction in Homelessness
Client background
Sarah had been managing the family foundation since her father, Ron Cousins, established it 15 years earlier. Her children had left school and she decided in her early 50s that now was the time to devote herself to managing the family’s philanthropic initiative. The Cousins family business had been based on property development, so it seemed logical that the Cousins Family Foundation, with an initial asset base of about $10m, would be devoted to helping causes associated with homelessness.
Sarah realised it was an opportunity for her to put some new thinking into how the Foundation operated.
Ron was very active in the key decisions and the style of the Foundation. When he passed away a year ago, Sarah realised it was an opportunity for her to put some new thinking into how the Foundation operated. Sarah had followed the use of the Foundation’s grants and at different points was very proud of their individual success stories. However she was also frustrated by the apparent inability to dramatically reduce the incidence of homelessness. She would often drive past an overhang where she knew homeless men would sleep, reflect on all the good charitable work and funding that had gone into funding not just temporary but expensive permanent accommodation for these rough sleepers and wonder why there were still new faces every year under the same overhang.
Understanding the problem
Sarah had learnt enough about homelessness that it required multiple types of responses and she thought it important that their Foundation continue to fund charities on that basis. Crisis funding for food and shelter was as important in her mind as long-term solutions like permanent supported housing. Long-term rough sleepers needed different responses to women escaping domestic violence. Older women living in dilapidated boarding houses had different needs to 18 year olds who were couch surfing. She knew that better evidence was emerging about how new approaches, particularly as trialed in places like the US and the UK, had made real gains in permanently reducing the homeless population.
The Cousins Foundation accepted applications twice a year and made grants of different sizes to different homelessness agencies, each with a compelling case as to why ongoing funding was needed. Sarah had attempted to put some bite into that somewhat passive process by initiating a trial of an innovative youth homelessness program. As part of that program, the Foundation funded a research and evaluation component such that if the results showed consistently better outcomes she would propose working with the charity (YouthWorks) to promote its replication in other communities.
Sarah was concerned that in the coming years that Government would reduce dramatically the overall funding going to the homelessness sector. A large number of the agencies the Foundation worked with had visions to scale up the services, yet it seemed obvious that no new sources of funding, private or government, were on the horizon. No one, particularly Government, seemed to be effective at making good decisions about doing what was needed for the long-term reduction of homelessness.
Sarah began to realise how isolated she was in making good decisions about the best use of the Foundation’s funds. Outside bimonthly Foundation Board meetings, neither of her two brothers had shown interest in a more radical approach to the management of their grants. Charities were always keen to talk to her about their good works but Sarah realised she wanted something that gave her a broader, more impartial view.
Sarah began to realise how isolated she was in making good decisions about the best use of the Foundation’s funds.
Introducing PSI Managers into the mix
A professional contact introduced Sarah to Keith at PSI Managers. Sarah understood that Keith’s input would be as a strategic sounding board, a catalyst for different thinking and a connector to new ideas and organisations. Sarah asked Keith to work with her over three months to review the grants the Foundation had been making, to put them into a broad strategic framework and help her articulate a better vision for what the Foundation was trying to do.
Getting started
First up, Keith encouraged Sarah to request meetings with all the charities to which the Foundation made annual grants in excess of $30,000, ideally meeting the managers who were delivering the programs. Keith agreed to accompany Sarah to those meetings and to jointly prepare the key areas they would like to discuss. These meetings went very well, and were usually followed by one on one discussions. Sarah had done some of this type of thing before but not methodically and often alone. She found the preparation for the meetings with Keith stimulating – it renewed her faith that as hard as resolving homelessness was, it was possible to systemically reduce it. She was animated by the idea that the Cousins Family Foundation could be part of the leadership that achieved that change.
Sarah found the preparation for the meetings with Keith stimulating – it renewed her faith. As hard as resolving homelessness was, it was possible to systemically reduce it.
Keith probed Sarah about the Foundation’s theory of change: what did Sarah think they were doing, relative to what others were doing, that would bring about change. They explored:
- The emerging work on the long term cost benefit to government budgets of permanently reducing homelessness and the role the Foundation should play in promoting that work;
- How successful programs were replicated. If the Foundation’s youth homelessness program with YouthWorks proved successful, it may be better to encourage YouthWorks to play a training and accreditation role for other charities, rather than a program delivery role;
- Whether their funding for food and meal programs in central Sydney should be linked to the provision of permanent supported housing.
A positive outcome
At the end of the three months Keith helped Sarah produce a strategy paper that included a well-articulated theory of change. This was put to the Foundation Board and endorsed. Sarah asked Keith to continue working with the Foundation on a two-day a month basis to ensure the strategy was well implemented. It was agreed this would include regular fortnightly meetings for the two of them to check in on progress and share ideas and information.