Reproductive Health Technologies Project (RHTP)
71
12
"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Washington, D.C.
Founded: 1992
Mission: The mission of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project is to advance the ability of every woman of any age to achieve full reproductive freedom with access to the safest, most effective, appropriate and acceptable technologies for ensuring her own health and controlling her fertility. To fulfill this mission, we seek to build consensus in support of an education, research and advocacy agenda for reproductive health and reproductive freedom. We seek consensus through a process of dialogue among diverse communities about technological developments and their global implications.
Tags:
national, women's reproductive health, advocacy, fertility, reproductive justice, contraception, abortion, reproductive technology, public education, policy, sexually transmitted diseases
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Kirsten Moore.
Kirsten Moore is President and CEO of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to improve the political and commercial climate in the U.S. so more and better contraceptive and reproductive health products are available to women. In recent years, the Project has played a principal role in defining the advocacy agenda for expanding awareness…
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Financial Data
| Overhead Ratio: n/a |
| Total Revenue: $1,117,317 |
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Address:
1020 19th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036, USA
Twitter:
Story:
What does the Reproductive Health Technologies Project do?
RHTP was founded in 1988 as a working group to provide public education and build public understanding about the French "abortion pill" RU 486 and other antiprogestins. In 1992, RHTP became an independent 501(c)3 organization.
Taking on issues where science, politics, and industry converge — and often clash — RHTP has established itself as a powerful vehicle for public education, advocacy, and policy development around existing and emerging reproductive health technologies. Across all program areas, RHTP applies its winning approach to advocacy and consensus-building: bringing together experts from a variety of fields and disciplines to learn from and influence one another, using solid science and clinical data to arm advocates and policy makers to influence political outcomes, and developing strategies on cutting edge issues that can be carried out by the broadest possible range of organizations and constituencies.
(To learn more visit: http://www.rhtp.org/about/default.asp)
Expert Reviews of Reproductive Health Technologies Project (RHTP)
Evidence of Impact Summary:
Reproductive Health Technologies Project receives high marks for its ability to tackle the complex emotions surrounding contraception. In particular, the group’s efforts to make new technology available and publicized drew repeated praise. Experts have no shortage of superlatives when trying to capture the impact of this organization's messaging has had about how politicians and the public conceptualize these issues.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Top leadership earns multiple kind references. Generally, experts call out the timeliness of issues tackled as a distinguishing strength of this organization.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Most areas for improvement involve ways in which this organization can expand the breadth of its programming or increase the volume of people served by scaling operations. While the current leadership is believed to be strong, some experts question how deep the leadership bench will be in the future.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Impact |
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They have given the movement the confidence to talk about abortion in an authentic, emotionally resonant way -- by acknowledging the conflicted feelings have about it -- without losing support (and gaining ground with some) for abortion rights. This has been reflected in the way elected officials have talked about the issue publicly, in campaigns to defeat state anti-choice initiatives, where campaign messages took an empathetic, rather than right-based approach. | ||
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Reproductive Health Technologies Project has redefined reproductive freedom to include the ability to choose when (and if) to get pregnant and have a healthy pregnancy. They are connecting the latest science with communications to effectively reach lay audiences about environmental exposures and their impact on reproductive health. | ||
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They have had strong outreach to legislators and staff in DC on issues related to reproductive health. They have partnered with environmental health groups to work on major federal legislation. | ||
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They bring together reproductive health, rights and justice organizations and individuals. | ||
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They bring together working groups to increase access to reproductive health technology; they also bringing new issues to light. | ||
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Their ground breaking research on the language of abortion has had significant impact on the effectiveness of other organizations which have embraced and used the new language to awaken pro-choice responses in people with mixed views on abortion. They continue to do research that looks at some of the toughest issues associated with reproductive health from innovative perspectives that have the potential for similar impact. In addition, their involvement in the intersection of reproductive health and environmental health is helping to increase public awareness of the effects of environmental toxins on reproductive health and to strengthen advocacy efforts on related legislation. | ||
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Reproductive Health Reality Check blog isn't just shaping the movement conversation. It is the movement conversation in real time. | ||
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Their research informs and supports key issues within the reproductive framework. RHTP has collaborated with state or national organizations, engaged non-traditional consultants to broaden the reach and scope of the reproductive framework. | ||
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They made emergency contraceptives available over-the-counter, lead the campaign to first make average people aware of emergency contraceptives, supported FDA approval of over the counter access. When that was blocked by the Bush Administration, they worked with Susan Wood to generate grassroots support for this specific reproductive health technology, as well as the concept that the integrity of science was jeopardized. | ||
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They helped formulate important message framing for top areas of our work. | ||
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They are effective at creating and supporting tools - material and intellectual - that can be used in the field, ranging from new methods of abortion to strategies for talking about abortion to new audiences. | ||
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They have shaped public opinion and language research to develop new messaging for reproductive rights, health, and justice policy work. | ||
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Their evidence-based approach to developing messaging on abortion-related choice speaks to their impact. | ||
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They made an impact doing research on how technology was changing perception and public opinion on reproductive health/rights. They have a new point of view, identifying emerging issues and forcing thoughtful, but not easy, conversations. | ||
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Though a small organization, Reproduction Health Technologies has been unafraid to grapple with some of the thorns in the movement's side, to express unorthodox opinions, and to try to get ahead of the curve on emerging issues. Their messaging allows for acknowledgment of discomfort with abortion so that people are more open to hearing arguments in defense of abortion rights and their work on assisted reproductive technologies and environmental health broadens the scope of reproductive rights work and lends itself to creative coalition building efforts. | ||
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Reproductive Health Technologies play a valuable role providing information to an array of other groups in the reproductive health, rights, and justice arenas. | ||
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Their advocacy for cutting edge issue like emergency contraceptives and new reproductive health technologies. | ||
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This organization has done some groundbreaking, game-changing research into messaging around abortion that focuses on acknowledging the ambivalence many individuals have about some of the toughest pro-choice issues. They have also historically been very effective in educating the public about emergency contraception and working to increase access. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Timeliness |
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Strategic thinking and ability to work with unlikely partners (cognitive linguists, for example) to solve movement-wide, systematic problems. Kirsten Moore and her team (staff and consultants) are always a few steps ahead of me and consistently have proven to be going in the right direction. | ||
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They take on new issues as they emerge. | ||
Communications |
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Their communications has been a particular strength of late. They provide analysis that explores the full spectrum of reproductive freedom. | ||
Leadership |
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They have strong leadership (management and Board), are forward-thinking and entrepreneurial. | ||
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They have strong leadership. | ||
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They have a great Executive Director. | ||
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Kirstin is a great leader, very easy to collaborate with, has strong research credentials, and takes the broadest view of the landscape so not serving just one organization interest. | ||
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They have a thoughtful, experienced leader in Kirsten Moore and are positioned well to be available to a range of organizations in the field. | ||
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Their leadership demonstrates great creativity and flexibility. Their staff development has recently been a priority and that is yielding great results. | ||
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Kirsten Moore is a very articulate leader. | ||
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They enjoy strong leadership on both the staff and board levels. | ||
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They have an extremely strong, talented CEO, and an ability to find niches for important work that nobody else has found. | ||
Staff |
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They have a strong staff. | ||
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They have creativity, thoughtfulness, and innovation. They also have effective delegation and empowerment of staff. | ||
Program Design |
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Part of Reproductive Health Technologies Project effectiveness is that it works particularly well in coalition, consistently putting accomplishing the task ahead of getting the credit. Combined with their innovative thinking and willingness to take risks in approaching issues in new ways that may ruffle entrenched feathers, this characteristic helps them have far more impact than their size might suggest they would. Both attributes stem from their leadership. | ||
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The webinar series is also a big contribution to the movement. It doesn't seem to try to do too many things. Reproductive Health Technologies Project has identified a need and formed itself to fit that need without over-stretching. | ||
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Deep thinking -- they're leading the field in looking at abortion in a new light. They're also making connections between the environment and women's right to fertility. | ||
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They are thoughtful, creative, thorough, and effective. | ||
Advocacy |
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They have targeted, careful advocacy with the Hill, while not trying to compete with the "big groups." They helped Reproductive Health Technologies Project become a player in thinking on the Hill. This is a big victory for a group with no lobbyists. | ||
Leadership & Mission |
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Issues around emerging technology are becoming ever more important, and it has positioned itself in a leading, yet collegial position. In particular, its work on framing and public opinion issues is critical. Kirsten Moore is a terrific leader, and the quality of its work is very high. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Depth of Bench |
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The only staff person I know there is Kirsten Moore. Hopefully she is taking the time to train others in her strategic thinking and creative team-building. Like I said, I am always two steps behind Kirsten, which might mean that she could improve on how she explains her work. Perhaps she could get it to a level where I (as a representative sample) could catch up to only one step behind. | ||
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I'm not sure how this organization will "survive" its founding leader, who seems ready to move on. | ||
Expand Programming |
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They are navigating a narrow road connecting more traditional reproductive health concerns while expanding reproductive health to include broader concepts that aren't always easy for funders to grasp. As a result, they are not reaching the funding community as effectively as they (or I) would like. | ||
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It would be wonderful if they could provide support throughout the year. | ||
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They could do more work in international settings. They offer great tools but may be viewed as too US-centric and should be tested/benchmarked in other settings. | ||
Growth |
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They need to continue to grow and develop organizationally. | ||
Scalability |
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They have definitely benefited from having a west coast independent contractor assisting with its work and could have a broader reach through establishing a west coast office as well. They are constrained primarily by their small size which translates inevitably into more limited bench strength and reach than a larger organization could muster. | ||
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I don't think they're anywhere near their maximum potential. They need to find a way to scale up so they can have a greater impact on the movement and on the general public. They don't have much visibility outside of the movement itself. | ||
Diversity |
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It could benefit from more local and fewer federal (and coastal) voices. | ||
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They could reach out to a more ideologically diverse set of actors. | ||
Collaboration |
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I think it is a challenge to share all of the work done across the national landscape; they do an amazing job with somewhat limited resources. | ||
Funding |
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They could have more visibility and more funding. | ||
Communication |
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They could further strengthen connections and exchange outside of 'the beltway.' They could communicate more widely and clearly about the whole of the organization, its role, its work (which is more recognized at the level of specific projects or initiatives). | ||
Leadership |
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It would be great to see this organization grow its leadership beyond the current CEO and continue its current efforts to bring in a more diverse, reproductive justice perspective. | ||
Leadership
Kirsten Moore
President and CEO
President and CEO
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.