Learning & Evaluation

Managing for Learning and Impact

Stef Steyaert, Mark Hongenaert, Tinne Vandensande, Wouter Van den Berghe, Valerie Bockstette, Marc Pfitzer, Hallie Preskill

Over the past three years, the King Baudouin Foundation has developed a more systematic approach for the evaluation of its projects, which FSG helped codify in the KBF Project Management Guide: ‘Managing for Learning and Impact’.

Report

Learning From an Adaptive-Consultative Approach

Srikanth Gopalakrishnan, Hallie Preskill

This article describes a creative relationship between the Ball Foundation and the Rowland Unified School District, based on the concept of “adaptive leadership".

Article

2011 Reports from the Field: Place-based Foundations and the Knight Community Information Challenge

John Kania, Katelyn Mack, Ellen Martin, Marina Pol Longo, Hallie Preskill

This second annual report highlights lessons learned from the Knight Community Information Challenge.

Report

Opportunities for Foundation Leadership

Jeff Cohen, Nathalie Jones, Leslie Crutchfield

These three case studies show how community foundations, working to create more informed and engaged communities, contributed to transforming their own institutions.

Report

IMPACT: A Practical Guide to Evaluating Community Information Projects

Katelyn Mack, Ellen Martin, Hallie Preskill, John Kania

Four essential steps to collecting useful information about the effectiveness and impact of community-based information and media efforts.

Report

Museum Evaluation Without Borders

Hallie Preskill

This article invites readers to think outside of evaluation’s current boundaries and to see the deep connectedness between what museums hope to achieve and how we evaluate the extent to which these aspirations may be realized.

Article

Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Evaluation Questions

Hallie Preskill, Nathalie Jones

Engaging stakeholders early on allows organizations to develop measurement processes that are more relevant, credible and useful.

Report

Webinar

Communicating Education Metrics - Executive Summary

Jason Lee, Hallie Preskill, Rebecca Graves

New research highlights eight innovative tools that allow users to communicate social metrics effectively to a wide range of users.

Executive Summary

Report

Communicating Education Metrics

Jason Lee, Hallie Preskill, Rebecca Graves

New research highlights eight innovative tools that allow users to communicate social metrics effectively to a wide range of users.

Report

Executive Summary

Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement and Social Impact

Mark Kramer, Marcie Parkhurst, Lalitha Vaidyanathan

To achieve the dramatic results necessary to solve today's largest social challenges, coordinated evaluation approaches involving multiple stakeholders are required.

Report

Executive Summary

Webinar

Trustee Evaluation Toolkit

Mark Kramer, Eva Nico, Samantha Nobles-Block

Trustees and foundations need innovative evaluation approaches to make strategic decisions, better plan work, improve implementation and track progress.

Report

Toolkit

Webinar

Toward a New Approach to Product Development Partnership (PDP) Performance Measurement

Kyle Peterson, Marc Pfitzer, Laura Herman, Patty Russell, David Zapol, Mike Stamp

This report highlights new approaches to measuring the performance of product development partnerships, multi-sector collaborations developing products for neglected diseases.

Report

From Insight to Action: New Directions in Foundation Evaluation

Mark Kramer, Rebecca Graves, Jason Hirschhorn, Leigh Fiske

After a year of research and nearly 100 interviews with foundation leaders and evaluation experts, FSG has released a report that identifies a fundamental transition in the way foundations use evaluation. 

Report

Measuring Innovation: Evaluation in the Field of Social Entrepreneurship

Mark Kramer

This paper provides an overview of evaluation practices in social entrepreneurship and highlights ways that this new thinking might both inform and benefit from other approaches to evaluation among foundations.

Report

The Evaluation Matrix

Mark Kramer

Evaluation is one of the most confusing topics in philanthropy – in part because it embraces multiple definitions that are often jumbled together.

Article

Benchmarking Philanthropy

John Kania

Benchmarking philanthropic performance against industry peers is extremely helpful in finding ways to increase both the business and social benefit of every dollar the company contributes.

Article

The Evaluation of Capacity Building Grants

Rebecca Graves, Henry Culbreath

Many foundations now have programs aimed at capacity building for their grantees. FSG's analysis of the Maine Community Foundation (MCF) highlighted three basic lessons that can increase the likelihood of success for any capacity building initiative.

Report

The Foundation Performance Dashboard: Vital Statistics for Social Impact

Fay Hanleybrown

Foundations are unsure how to bridge the chasm between the readily available and concise metrics for investment performance and the much more complex, expensive, and subjective data from internal operations and program evaluations.

Report

Allocating Resources in a Time of Scarcity

Mark Kramer, John Kania

In tough times foundations should concentrate their giving in those areas in which their expertise, relationships, and grantees create the greatest value.

Article