Case Study Curbing Mission Creep

Case Study Curbing Mission Creep Despite temptations to broaden its focus, the Rural Development Institute has remained single-mindedly devoted to its mission. As a result, the organization has helped 400 million poor farmers around the world take ownership of some 270 million acres of land – all on a modest budget. By Kim Jonker & William F. Meehan III Stanford Social Innovation Review Winter 2008 Stanford Social Innovation Review 518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305-5015 Ph: 650-725-5399. Fax: 650-723-0516 Email: [email protected], www.ssireview.com Copyright © 2007 by Leland Stanford Jr. University All Rights Reserved Stanford Social Innovation Review 518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305-5015 Ph: 650-725-5399. Fax: 650-723-0516 Email: [email protected], www.ssireview.com CASE STUDY Curbing Mission Creep DESPITE TEMPTATIONS TO BROADEN ITS FOCUS, THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT Institute has remained single-mindedly devoted to its mission. As a result, the organization has helped 400 million poor farmers around the world take ownership of some 270 million acres of land – all on a modest budget. by KIM JONKER & WILLIAM F. MEEHAN III THROUGHOUT THE WORLD’S working with governments to design By the end of 2006, RDI had worked countrysides, the difference between land rights reform laws, policies, and in 40 countries and helped poor rural poverty and prosperity often lies under programs; 3) convincing governments, dwellers take ownership of some 270 people’s feet: land. When poor farmers donor agencies, and foreign aid organi- million acres – roughly 7 percent of the come to own the land on which they world’s arable land. The organization’s work, their newfound pride, commit- success invites temptations: to expand ment, and long-term outlook dramati- How can nonprofits avoid into new areas, to aid new populations, cally increase their productivity. As a to adopt new methods. But by hewing result, landownership not only helps mission creep? closely to its mission, RDI has increased families generate more income and its impact on a relatively small annual wealth, it also leads them to enjoy bet- budget of just over $2 million. ter nutrition, health, self-esteem, and What can nonprofits “We have avoided mission creep and community status. gain from sticking to have focused on what we do best,” says As several revolutions have shown, Roy Prosterman, RDI’s founder and however, transferring land from those their mission? chairman emeritus. who have it to those who don’t is no easy Mission creep plagues the nonprofit task. Yet a small Seattle-based nonprofit sector. In the private sector, pencil man- has managed to turn 400 million of the What are the elements ufacturers, for example, rarely dive into world’s poorest people into landowners. of an effective the bakery business or into human The nonprofit, the Rural Development resources consulting. Yet nonprofits rou- Institute (RDI), is a group of attorneys, mission statement? tinely do the equivalent, expanding their economists, and public policy experts programs far beyond their organiza- who help the rural poor around the globe tions’ original scope, skills, and core obtain the legal right to own land. zations to help the rural poor own land; competencies – often in response to RDI pursues its mission through four and 4) implementing land rights reforms, funding opportunities or staff mem- major activities: 1) researching both the which includes making the rural poor bers’ interests. land needs of the rural poor and the aware of their rights and monitoring This creeping can stretch organiza- best practices in land rights reform; 2) land transfers. tions so thin and so far that they can no 60 STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW / winter 2008 www.ssireview.org CASE STUDY A farmer plows his field in rural India. Although land is the primary source of income, wealth, credit access, and status for rural Indians, some 62 million households have either few or no landownership rights. The Rural Development Institute is working to change that. longer effectively apply their resources Knowing When to Say “No” Vietnamese government, with financial toward their goals. RDI was born in 1967, in the midst of the help from the U.S. government, bought RDI’s greatest weapon in fighting Vietnam War. Prosterman had finished land from large landlords for two and a mission creep is its well-defined mission a Harvard law degree and a stint on half times the value of the land’s crops, statement: “RDI is an international non- Wall Street, and was teaching at the Uni- and then redistributed the plots to ten- profit organization working to secure versity of Washington School of Law. ant farmers. Between 1970 and 1973, land rights for the world’s poorest peo- Watching as the Viet Cong recruited the program gave land rights to 1 million ple, those 3.4 billion chiefly rural people thousands of impoverished rural farm- tenant farmers, increased rice production who live on less than $2 a day.” This ers, he became convinced that redis- by 30 percent, and cut Viet Cong recruit- mission clearly states whom the orga- tributing land to poor tenant farmers ment by 80 percent. A 1970 editorial in nization serves – the world’s poorest and paying reasonable compensation to The New York Times called the program people – and what it aims to do – get landlords would address some of the “probably the most ambitious and pro- them land rights. (See “Making Mis- social and economic causes of the war. gressive non-Communist land rights sions That Won’t Creep” on p. 64 for He published his ideas about democra- reform of the 20th century.” more on effective mission statements.) tic land reform in the Washington Law Unlike the Marxist variety, RDI’s Using this mission statement, RDI Review. The dean of the University of democratic land rights reforms ensure can wisely decide which projects to Washington School of Law then passed that governments lawfully and nonvio- accept and which to decline, as well as the article on to a friend at USAID. lently give private landowners fair com- which ongoing projects to exit. In so Impressed with Prosterman’s ideas, pensation for their land. Land recipi- doing, the organization has become a USAID invited him to be a land law con- ents, in turn, are free to choose how leading expert on rural land issues for the sultant in South Vietnam. Before he they will farm. Nearly all choose family World Bank, the U.S. Agency for Inter- knew it, Prosterman was standing in a farming, rather than forming collectives national Development (USAID), and rice paddy, drafting legislation for the or cooperatives. During its early years, the United Nations Development Pro- Land to the Tiller program. “My instruc- RDI developed its mission statement. gramme. And Prosterman received the tions had been to find facts, not make rec- “There was so much enthusiasm and inaugural Henry R. Kravis Prize in Lead- ommendations,” he says. “But I ignored interest in all of the new opportunities ership, which is administered by Clare- those instructions.” and different directions that we could mont McKenna College.1 Through the program, the South take,” Prosterman explains. “I needed a PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE www.ssireview.org winter 2008 / STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW 61 tool with which to herd the cats and to agement team weighed the pros and make sure that everyone was on the cons of expanding the organization’s same page about our fundamental goal.” operations into India. India has the Over time, RDI has slightly altered the largest number of poor people on the wording of its mission statement, but its planet. It also has the greatest concen- substance has remained the same. tration of rural households that are land- RDI uses its mission statement to less or nearly landless – a total of 62 mil- know when to say “no” to new projects. lion households. A 1997 World Bank In 1998, for example, a USAID contrac- report showed that landlessness – even tor approached RDI with the opportu- more than caste or illiteracy – was by far nity to work on a fully funded urban land the greatest predictor of poverty in rights reform project in the former Soviet India.2 For these reasons, Prosterman Union. Though not targeted specifically Roy Prosterman conducts fieldwork in and Hanstad found the possibility of to the poor, the subcontracting offer China, where RDI has helped give land entering India extremely attractive. “It was quite alluring: RDI was already rights to more than 75 million families. was the kind of opportunity that makes working in the former Soviet Union on nonprofit leaders who aspire to make a a grant that was about to expire. This sion, says Hanstad. The organization difference absolutely starry-eyed,” new subcontracting opportunity would eventually found other ways to earn explains Hanstad. give RDI a new, stable source of fund- money, such as charging fees to help Yet this high-reward opportunity ing. It would also take advantage of with farm privatization in Moldova and was also high risk. RDI usually only RDI’s rich expertise in Russian land law. Ukraine. This income allowed the orga- enters countries whose politicians are Despite these economies and syn- nization to focus on its mission and to willing to develop and implement the ergies, RDI would still have to devote develop “a strong presence in the former organization’s recommended initiatives. much time and energy to understanding Soviet Union within our niche of rural “We always ask ourselves, do the polit- urban, as opposed to rural, land rights land rights reform,” says Hanstad. By the ical forces appear to be aligned, or at least reform.

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