Resources

Building Power That’s Enduring, Not Episodic: Learnings From the Culture & Community Power Fund

How do marginalized communities build systemic power that is enduring rather than merely episodic? For many grassroots organizers, the answer is deeply rooted in culture.

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Co-creating our story: A hybrid participatory case approach to evaluating and accelerating organizational change

This brief describes an evaluative approach we took to an organizational change process at a foundation that could be useful to evaluators.

Q&A: Washington Evaluators in conversation with Dr. Chera Reid

This conversation originally took place during an event hosted by Washington Evaluator members on November 5th, 2020, and is cross-posted at https://washingtonevaluators.org.

Supporting Effective Early Childhood Advocacy

Using an evaluative method called contribution analysis, we developed a “contribution story” that assesses SCAN’s contribution to a key ECE policy outcome or win in each state: New Hampshire, New Mexico, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

Can Foundations Radically Transform How They Learn?

In 2020, we are seeing some fundamental shifts in how foundations are operating and attempting to learn. How might we use our experience right now to understand something new about the organizational and sector conditions that are necessary to make real and honest learning and adaptation possible and in service to equity?

Re-Thinking How We Work with Boards on Evaluation and Learning

Most board room routines are based on the mental model that social change is a technocratic problem-solving endeavor. So we incentivize and reward staff who project a degree of certainty about how social change happens that's just not real because the change process is much more complex.

It’s Time to Let Go of Tired Narratives about Talent in Evaluation

Social sector conversations about talent often focus on increasing diversity, building skillsets, and improving hiring and management. But to solve tough social problems, we need to let go of tired narratives about talent and work together to dismantle oppression in the evaluation field.

Why is Evaluation So White?

In this presentation, Vidhya Shanker, PhD, and Carolina De La Rosa Mateo, MPH, explore how the field of evaluation has approached race, the implications of that approach, and the promise of generative networks to amplify the work of evaluators who identify as Indigenous, Black, or People of Color (IBPOC), as illustrated by one such network recently formed in Minnesota.

Smart Decision-Making

Even when evidence is available in the social sector, it is rarely used. A number of tools and tactics can help us become savvier consumers of information.

Performance Measurement for Emergent and Complex Strategies [Webinar]

Learn about four types of strategies—niche, integrated, emergent, and ecosystem—and the types of performance measurement and accountability systems best suited to each.
Benchmarking Foundation Evaluation Practices 2020

Benchmarking Foundation Evaluation Practices 2020

What does foundation evaluation look like today? Is it adapting to meet the changing needs of the sector and society?

The Realm of Possibility in Evaluation

It is possible to get more from evaluation, and it starts by challenging our own habits.

How Leaders Affect Evaluation Capacity Building in Foundations

Regardless of intent, foundation leaders can substantially harm or strengthen evaluation capacity building in their organizations. We can add value if we know how and why.
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