A foundation's approach to evaluation begins with the values and goals established and upheld by the board. Foundation trustees need to be clear about what they value: Do they want to demonstrate and measure attribution or contribution? Do they need to connect the Foundation's work to a specific outcome? Or do they want to demonstrate the Foundation's contribution to a multi-faceted problem? 

For boards seeking attribution, an evaluation using an experimental design is typically required. Additionally, this approach drives foundation staff to choose from a particular set of strategies. Let's consider, for example, high school dropout rates. A board that is concerned with attribution will seek to develop a strategy that addresses directly a reduction in dropout rates.  Such a strategy might focus on determining how many youth the Foundation is helping complete high school, resulting in a single numerical value.  Alternatively, a board that seeks to demonstrate their contribution to solving a social problem will allow for a broader range of strategies, many of which are challenging to evaluate, such as engaging in policy, coalition-building or other efforts that take a longer term, more systemic view of the issue -- rather than just counting how many students remained in school because of a particular grant.

If attribution is the driving force behind a board's approach to evaluation, it requires more resources, more time, a complex design and quantitatively skilled evaluators - all dedicated to answering the question "What impact can be directly linked to our Foundation". Conversely, an evaluation approach that prioritizes the contribution of an organization will encourage trustees to ask, "How are we contributing?" Evaluation that focuses on this question might use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how a variety of outcomes occur. Most significantly, this approach recognizes that solving social problems cannot be accomplished in a vacuum, but most often requires the contribution of many actors, working collectively.

Evaluating our contributions to solving social problems allows each of us to assess our roles and efforts as actors coming together to solve particular problems.  At our Foundation, this approach enables us to meet our three primary evaluation goals: Program Improvement, Knowledge Generation and Accountability. Most significantly to our organization, this approach provides real-time learning with room to candidly assess our strategies and engage in meaningful dialogue with our grantees...enabling us to collectively move forward and actively solve problems."