Evaluation and Learning for Aligned Action: 2014 Evaluation Roundtable Convening
This presentation provides the context for the 2014 Evaluation Roundtable convening, as well as discussion outlines, benchmarking data, case examples, and key lessons and implications for evaluation and learning.
Evaluation and Learning for Complexity and Aligned Action: Framing Brief
This framing brief developed for the 2014 Evaluation Roundtable convening explores whether and how sectoral shifts in strategy mindset and practice toward more complexity and emergence call for changes in the role of evaluation and learning in foundations.
How Shortcuts Cut Us Short: Cognitive Traps in Philanthropic Decision Making
Decades of research have shown that despite the best of intentions, and even when actionable data are presented at the right time, people do not automatically make good and rational decisions. This brief highlights common cognitive traps that can trip up philanthropic decision making, and suggests straightforward steps to counter them.
Eyes Wide Open: Learning as Strategy Under Conditions of Complexity and Uncertainty
How can foundations avoid the traps that sabotage their learning and hamper their ability to guide strategy in complex contexts? This article explores a series of self-created “traps,” including 1) linearity and certainty bias; 2) the autopilot effect; and 3) indicator blindness.
Evaluation in Foundations: 2012 Benchmarking Data
This presentation, developed for the 2012 Evaluation Roundtable convening, examines how foundations structure their evaluation and learning functions, invest in evaluative activities, and use evaluative information. Findings are based on surveys from 31 foundations with a strong commitment to evaluation – and 38 foundations that participated in interviews.
The Art of the Nudge: Five Practices for Developmental Evaluators
Conventional program evaluation is a poor fit for the uncertain and emergent nature of innovative and complex initiatives. Developmental evaluation offers an alternative. This article offers five practices to help developmental evaluators detect and support opportunities for learning and adaptation leading to right-timed feedback.
Benchmarking Evaluation in Foundations: Do We Know What We Are Doing?
Evaluation in philanthropy–with staff assigned to evaluation-related responsibilities–began in the 1970s and has evolved, along with philanthropy, in the decades since. This Foundation Review article presents findings, based on 2012 research, about what foundations are doing on evaluation and discusses their implications.
Strategy Implementation Addressing the Disconnect between Decisions and Data: 2012 Evaluation Roundtable Convening
Drawing on benchmarking data gathered from the Evaluation Roundtable network, this presentation examines organizational barriers to learning from strategies, warns against cognitive traps that hinder learning and decision-making, and describes approaches to avoid or counteract those traps. It explores how the culture and role of evaluation in foundations can disconnect learning from strategy.
Evaluating Social Innovation
Common evaluation approaches and practices can constrain the kind of continuous learning and adaptation that is necessary for innovation. This brief offers lessons about an emerging evaluation approach—developmental evaluation—which supports the adaptation that is so crucial to innovation.
Advocacy & Public Policy Grantmaking: Matching Process to Purpose
How should foundations approach their advocacy and public policy grantmaking? This report offers three options and explores what it means for foundations to design grantmaking that builds the capacity and influence of an advocacy field.