

1015 15th Street, N.W., 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Senior Fellow Emeritus
William A. Schambra is senior fellow emeritus at Hudson Institute.
Co-Editor of <i>Mistakes to Success</i> and Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Center for Family Economics Success and Community Change
Assistant Vice President, Council on Foundations
Co-CEO, Engineers Without Borders
Do foundations make mistakes? If so, why do we so seldom hear about them? And if foundations don't talk freely about their errors, how can they learn from them? Robert Giloth, Vice President of the Center for Family Economic Success at Baltimore's Annie E. Casey Foundation, has set about to remedy that deficiency by editing, with Colin Austin, a collection of essays entitled Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong. Here's how he describes the purpose of the volume:
"Two key challenges motivate the book. First, the overall challenge of solving intractable social problems like poverty is exacerbated by our inability to design and implement solutions that are effective and stick. We must admit that our progress has not been sufficient and that more innovation is needed. Second, our propensity for ignoring and hiding, rather than disclosing and reflecting on, failed approaches limits our ability for real learning and improved investments. . . We must ask ourselves whether we have an innovation problem or a failure-recognition problem, and consider what capacities, tools, incentives, and supports are needed to reflect more usefully about success and failure."
The learning from mistakes" approach was also in the news recently with the courageous launch of a new website by Engineers Without Borders , as an accompaniment to its annual Failure Report.
The Bradley Center held a discussion with two pioneers of this approach and two philanthropy experts, moderated by Center Director William Schambra.
Please join Hudson Senior Fellow and Director of the Keystone Defense Initiative Rebeccah Heinrichs for a conversation with Senators Risch and Wicker on US support for Ukraine’s defense on Wednesday, March 29, at 4:00 p.m. A reception will follow.
Please join Hudson Institute for a discussion with Israel's Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Ofir Akunis and Executive Director of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute Robert Greenway, moderated by Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East Director Michael Doran.
Please join Hudson Institute to discuss what has gone wrong with US policy toward Venezuela and how the Biden administration and 118th Congress can reinvigorate efforts to support democracy so that all Venezuelans can have a brighter future.