Over the last year, we have had a chance to work with two foundations in the Twin Cities: a family and a community-based foundation. We learned a few lessons from this work about evaluation within a philanthropic context:
Different reasons driving the call for evaluation: While nonprofit programs are often prompted for evaluation results from funders, foundations have different accountability pressures. For example, staff, board members, and community leaders may all have expectations for transparency or results. We found it helpful to discuss who wants to know results and how evaluation will be used by the foundation early in our project.
Program v. portfolio: Rather than a specific program, foundations often have a portfolio of grantees whose work is in alignment with the Foundation’s mission and funding strategies. This dynamic greatly diversifies the evaluation picture, in terms of activities, outcomes, etc. A foundation can decide how much consistency is appropriate and effective for their purposes. For example, outcome strategies may vary from having required measures that each grantee must collect to allowing each grantee to define and report on their own measures.
Desire to understand impact: Sometimes a foundation sees a program gap that they are in a unique position to fill. When directly operating a program, evaluation can help foundations learn how well the program is meeting its goals to change people’s lives. Just like in a nonprofit setting, foundation-based programs need to know if they are reaching their target populations, if they are having the intended impact, and what factors might lead to different outcomes for participants or clients.
Each foundation will have different expectations about the contribution they make to community change. Some, such as those funding large-scale pilot programs, may be able to attribute changes directly to their work. Others have a role in contributing to a change, but are one of many investors in a specific program or approach, and so want evaluation to tell them how they have helped broader efforts. We found it important to have honest, reflective conversations about the relationship between the work of the foundation and community impact.
Desire to improve programs: Evaluation in foundations is driven in a large part by a desire to learn what works and what doesn’t, and to improve programs and operations. It is particularly helpful when best practices are identified that can be sustained, enhanced or replicated.
Whether it is a foundation, nonprofit, or public entity it is our job as evaluation specialists to listen carefully and always fit the methods and approaches to the organization’s specific goals for the work, and be courageous in pointing out issues that have not been addressed.
