Data, impact, and assessment

Internal Evaluation and Learning

Posted on December 15, 2022

A family philanthropy has a much better chance of success if there is an intentional culture that values continuous improvement, feedback and professional development, and an integrated approach of learning and assessment across governance, philanthropic strategy, succession, and more. The assessment process asks organizations to evaluate their philanthropic purpose, governance, team, accountability, finances, and family—to answer how you can continually… Read More

Listening and Feedback: Tools to Assess Your Philanthropy

Posted on December 15, 2022

Listening and Feedback: In Family Philanthropy
How can you elicit and act on feedback from your grantees and other external stakeholders? For all funders, gathering feedback is a helpful practice to understand how your work is impacting your grantees—and how you can more deeply incorporate the perspectives and experience of your partners and communities you serve. There are a number of tools available to facilitate this… Read More

Grantmaking Reporting Best Practices: Delivering Insights from Your Data to Your Leadership

Posted on June 13, 2022 by David Hazeltine

stacks of papers with blue and gray charts and graphs
This webinar is presented by Blackbaud in partnership with NCFP. Many funders have staff leaders who request robust data and reports to make informed, forward-looking decisions. It can be challenging to balance the information needs of staff leaders with the desire to be a grantmaking institution that limits the administrative burden and reporting requirements of its grantees. When selecting a… Read More

Direct Philanthropy Starter Kit

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Article Group Org

Shift power to local hands, work with the most effective movement leaders, and build long-term community power from the ground up. Our goal is to help new and experienced funders incorporate direct philanthropy as a living practice. We created this starter kit as a lightweight crash course, so you walk away confident and ready to partner directly with communities… Read More

Community Foundation Spark Session: Strategy Conversations with Donors

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Kim Montez, Melinda Mosier, Tony Macklin

Across income brackets, most donors are satisfied with philanthropy as an expression of personal commitment, belonging, or faith. Some start asking questions about intentionality and impact, seeking advice from peers and experts. What tools and techniques do community foundations use to help these donors move from discovery to intent, intent to strategy, and strategy to action? How might those tools… Read More

Practicing the Equitable Evaluation Framework™

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Katy Pelissier, Kimberlee Salmond, Henriët Hendriks, Marcia Coné

As philanthropy evolves and moves to centering equity, assessment, research, learning, and evaluation strategies must also evolve. What is the Equitable Evaluation Framework (EEF) and how do we engage with the EEF? Join your colleagues in a conversation about how they are seeding and growing a field of EEF practitioners to shift the paradigm. About this Series The monthly Fundamentals… Read More

Why Am I Always Being Researched?

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Chicago Beyond

In this publication, Chicago Beyond offers “how” we can begin to level the playing field and reckon with unintended bias when it comes to research. This guidebook was created to help shift the power dynamic and the way community organizations, researchers, and funders uncover knowledge together. It is an equity-based approach to research that offers one way in which we… Read More

Demystifying Decision Making in Family Philanthropy

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Ann Shulman

This Passages Issue Brief examines the kinds of decisions that family foundations often face and sets out practical, easy-to-apply guidelines for ensuring that the foundation’s decision-making methods vary appropriately, as conditions and circumstances change. It includes factors to consider when selecting a decision-making method, guidance on how to communicate clearly, simple tools to help make good decisions, and short case… Read More

Decision Making when Founders are Present

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Ann Shulman

This is an excerpt from Demystifying Decision Making in Family Philanthropy. Founders accustomed to making their own decisions in a business setting may bring unilateral decision-making to the foundation, often using it inappropriately. Founders may think of the foundation as “theirs” and feel impatient with or dismissive of group decision-making. At the same time, they genuinely want family members to… Read More

Strategy and Evaluation: The Twin Engines of Effective Philanthropy

Posted on January 8, 2021 by S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation

This essay provides a fast-paced tour of grantmaker approaches, launching with the advent of long-range planning in the 1980s and visiting scenario planning, social return on investment, human-centered design, big data, and other developments that have influenced practice. The author lands on strategy and evaluation as the anchor approaches that will fuel greater philanthropic impact in the new decade. This… Read More

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