VPP's investment partner Executive Directors met in spring, 2006 to discuss the aggregate impact of their work and VPP on the National Capital Region. The conversation, facilitated by Fred Miller of The Chatham Group, was a beginning step to map regional impact; see opportunities to add value in advance rather than retroactively; and identify learnings for others.This dialogue was part of a number of conversations and information-gathering efforts VPP is having to get a sense of its impact in the region.

Overall, these investment partner leaders see that their work together is resulting in higher standards and increased expectations for their organizations and other nonprofits in the region--from their boards, supporters, and themselves. Although specific evidence of aggregate impact is difficult to discern at this point they are confident in the "capacity for greater potential." As Dennis Hunt, Executive Director of the Center for Multicultural Human Services, said. "We're talking about systems change and the integration of our own services. Something very different. What we can identify now as impact is very modest and hard to measure. It's the capacity for impact."

While most agree that significantly improved outcomes are yet to come, they do see standards being raised. Some see increased expectations from community members as well: "What we're building here is a community that is expecting different outcomes of us and the public sector," said Maria Gomez, Executive Director of Mary's Center.

Investment partner leaders also see an emerging capacity for influencing the dialogue about what it takes to effectively change the lives of children and families and to affect public policy. This growing ability is primarily due to the deeper knowledge, understanding, and engagement of VPP investors and the increased ability for investment partner leaders to be thoughtfully involved in advocacy. As they build senior management teams who can take over the day-to-day operations of their organizations, leaders find themselves more able to participate in community and policy efforts.

"There's a direct correlation in our collective capacity to engage beyond our own organizations and movements when you have greater capacity on your team," said Lori Kaplan, Executive Director of the Latin American Youth Center. "I have more time now, and we all do, to play a leadership role in our work and sectors."

Some investment partners feel they have more credibility when advocating: "As outcomes of our work become more visible, there's a new level of respect and higher expectations," said the Executive Director of CentroNía, BB Otero.

All of the nonprofit leaders spoke of the increased capacity of their individual organizations to respond and perform, and of their movement towards greater sustainability and robustness. They attributed their growing strength to clearer vision and models, stronger senior management teams, more sustainability, and consistent delivery of service.

As Darin McKeever, Executive Director of Heads Up, pointed out, "Just having stable organizations that serve vulnerable communities is in and of itself of value." The group agreed that "stable" means the ability to identify and respond to opportunities as well as just providing consistent, high-quality service.

All agreed that the actual number of children and families benefiting from improved services has increased, and, in most cases, programs are now tied to research data indicating components/characteristics that are associated with improved outcomes. For many, the strategic plans and clarified visions have resulted in smart and informed growth. Kaplan explained, "We talked about "growing in to Maryland" before, but being armed with a strategic plan and a senior management team is a collective experience that is attributable to the VPP model."

Miller remarked that the comments of the leaders indicate a greater knowledge base and systems to make their organizations more effective. Some participants cautioned that as nonprofit enterprises grew in scale and attention and investments turned to scaling solutions to social problems, the region risked a loss of entrepreneurial energy or innovative thinking as large companies and organizations are not known for introducing change into systems. Others, like McKeever, while conceding the possible risk, highlighted the merits using Heads Up's own lifecycle as an example: "We're in a better position to innovate now than we have been since our founding. We were small and nimble and able to innovate, and now, 10 years out, we can innovate even more because of increased capacity."