The Beldon Fund: Final Impact Assessment

During its time-limited lifespan, the Beldon Fund sought to maximize its impact with focused investments in environmental advocacy and health. The Fund pursued three unique but interrelated strategies to advance positive change on the issues it cared about:

1) Build capacity and clout,

2) Support civic engagement,

3) Broaden the base of support.

A fourth strategy, Giving more than grants, supplemented the three main strategies.

The fundamental question at the heart of this assessment is: What do we know now that we could not have known five years ago about the impact and legacy of the Beldon Fund? This assessment is meant to complement the more comprehensive Final Evaluation Report written in 2008, with a particular focus on the question of sustained impact. The specific learning objectives for this final impact assessment include:

• Providing the Beldon Fund board and staff with a final analysis of the impact of its work
• Providing other philanthropic entities with a final set of lessons and observations about effective grantmaking and spend-out strategies