May 24, 2019

Urban Institute; New Philanthropy Capital (NPC); Candid; Salesforce.org;

Designed to help the social sector measure its impact in a responsible manner, the report, Impacting Responsibly, gathers insights from thought leaders in the fields of philanthropy, measurement, and evaluation in nine areas — impact capacity building, impact frameworks and standards, constituent feedback, current reporting burden, resource inequities, impact data ownership, roles and responsibilities, collaboration, and limits of quantitative evidence. The contributions also address questions such as: How can organizations of all sizes and budgets use impact data? How can they better engage those they serve through impact data? How should they handle privacy and data protection? And how can they collaborate to maximize what they can learn from impact data?

May 12, 2019

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO);

When grantmakers focus on learning for improvement, we use evaluation and learning to generate information and insights that will help us better understand both how we're doing in our work and how to improve. A focus on taking action based on what we learn ensures that we are engaged in strategic or applied learning. Our learning should be tied directly to the strategies we are pursuing and the decisions we are making. Learning in Philanthropy: A Guidebook provides a solid basis for thinking and talking about the next steps in our organization's learning work. The guidebook is designed to serve as a resource to help grantmakers answer critical learning questions and embed learning more deeply into the day-to-day work and cultures of our organizations.

Jan 31, 2019

David and Lucile Packard Foundation; ORS Impact;

In early 2017, ORS Impact evaluated and re-examined the David and Lucile Packard Foundation monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) principles and practice. The purpose of this evaluation was to discover what works well, identify areas for improvement, and stimulate reflection and experimentation. While this report uncovered many examples of strong MEL practice across the Foundation it also highlighted opportunities for improvement. Research findings fed into Foundation decisions to update both internal and external MEL processes and requirements, including refinement of the Foundation's Guiding Principles for MEL. A key audience of this report include readers wrestling with how to best support MEL in philanthropic settings so that it can support greater learning and impact, such as MEL staff working inside foundations and external evaluators working with foundations.

Jan 23, 2019

Equal Measure; Engage R+D; Harder+Company;

The aim of this report is to contribute to field dialogue and learning about how to structure complex systems change strategies involving multiple partners.

Jan 17, 2019

FSG; Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO);

Effecting social change in a rapidly changing political environment and an increasingly interconnected world requires foundations to adopt a learning orientation. Without continuous learning, grantmakers—and thus boards and trustees—are unaware about what is working where, with whom, and why, as well as what changes or refinements are needed in order to achieve the grantmakers' desired results. This toolkit provides a fresh set of resources for grantmaker CEOs, evaluation staff, and senior leaders to use to engage their boards and trustees in conversations about the importance of strategic learning in their decision-making and deliberation processes.

Nov 08, 2018

Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), The;

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) surveyed private and community foundation leaders regarding what they know about what is and isn't working in their foundations' efforts to achieve their goals. Drawing from 119 survey responses and in-depth interviews with 41 foundation CEOs, the report finds that while the majority of foundation CEOs believe they understand well what is working in their programmatic efforts, more than 40 percent believe their foundation is not investing enough time and money in developing that understanding.

Oct 01, 2018

Keystone Accountability; Giving Evidence;

This primer for monitoring and evaluation was developed jointly by Giving Evidence and Keystone to help a funder-client review and rethink their monitoring and evaluation practices. It was initially developed for a funder that had solicited our services to help them review and rethink their monitoring and evaluation practices, but we feel it is relevant for a broader audience of donors and implementers. The primer established a 4-level framework covering the monitoring of inputs and outputs, results monitoring, evaluation of grantee impact and evaluation of the contributions made to impact by the funders themselves.

Oct 01, 2018

Keystone Accountability; Giving Evidence;

Foundations create a lot more knowledge than they use, and most don't capture the full value of this data. Attached is our primer on trends in knowledge management. Learn what's changed, and discover easier ways to work. If you'd like to take advantage of machine learning and artificial intelligence to generate better insights, here are tips on how to design better systems and workflows for your team. It also includes a 9-stage scale to decide how sophisticated your current approach is, and where you can improve.