Evaluators as Conduits and Supports for Foundation Learning

Evaluators play a critical role in supporting philanthropic learning, programming, and strategy, but evaluation and learning in philanthropy is often limited in ways that impede deeper resonance and impact. Most philanthropic evaluation is focused on the needs of individual foundations, knowledge sh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Foundation Review 2019-03, Vol.11 (1), p.95-121
Main Authors: Perez, Debra Joy, Long, Meg, Nolan, Clare
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Community
Community development
Consultants
Consulting services
Corporate culture
Executives
Infrastructure
Knowledge sharing
Nonprofit organizations
Open Access
Philanthropy
Professionals
Skills
Social change
Training
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Summary:Evaluators play a critical role in supporting philanthropic learning, programming, and strategy, but evaluation and learning in philanthropy is often limited in ways that impede deeper resonance and impact. Most philanthropic evaluation is focused on the needs of individual foundations, knowledge sharing with the broader field is limited, and foundations struggle to integrate evaluation and learning as a management tool. This article makes the case that evaluators and funders can do more to build the collective capacity of evaluators working in philanthropy in order to enhance their contributions to community change. This article also examines the ways that evaluation in philanthropy is evolving, lays out root causes of its limitations, and looks at emerging tools, techniques, and lessons that showcase new ways evaluators and funders are working together to strengthen practice.
ISSN:1944-5660
1944-5679
1944-5660
DOI:10.9707/1944-5660.1456