The Devolution Initiative Evaluation: Innovation and Learning at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Federal welfare and health care reforms in the mid-1990s resulted in the “devolution” of powers, responsibilities, and funding from the federal to state and local levels of government. This teaching case focuses on the evaluation of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Devolution Initiative, a seven-year, $56 million project with 31 grantees and a $3.6 million external evaluation conducted by the Harvard Family Research Project.
Changing Stakeholder Needs and Changing Evaluator Roles: The Central Valley Partnership of the James Irvine Foundation
Research frequently has shown that internally useful evaluation is difficult to achieve unless a program is “evaluable.” A culture that is open to and supports evaluation and accountability is a prerequisite for achieving evaluability. This teaching case explores the process for creating such a culture.
Home Visitation: A Case Study of Evaluation at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation funded an evaluation-focused strategy for over a decade in a particular child development service area–home visitation This teaching case explores the origins of the Foundation’s focus in this area, the development of the evaluation approach, interpretations of the research, scaling of the approach, changes at the Foundation itself, case examples, methodological descriptions, and other aspects of the strategy and experience.