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  • Adjoining, repeating hexagons in black and white, except for three that are CEI's colors.

    publication Sep 2023

    Using Developmental Evaluation to Support Adaptive Strategies: An Application from a Social Change Initiative

    The chapter, authored by and written from the perspective of both strategists and evaluators, describes the methods used, how the evaluation informed strategy, and reections and lessons on the developmental evaluation experience and approach.

    By Tanya Beer, Kathy Armstrong, Julia Coffman, Daniel Stid

    Using Developmental Evaluation to Support Adaptive Strategies: An Application from a Social Change Initiative
  • publication Aug 2023

    Supporting Advocacy Ecosystems to Build Power

    Organizers need the support of other actors—professional advocates, think tanks and policy shops, researchers, communications firms, funders, evaluators, and others—to recognize the critical role of organizing and to share the long-term goal of building people power.

    By Julia Coffman

    Supporting Advocacy Ecosystems to Build Power
  • A black and white photo of stairs with a brick background. Includes CEI's benchmarking logo and abstract lines in CEI's colors (indigo, light indigo, and purple).

    insight Apr 2023

    What should we benchmark about learning and evaluation work in philanthropy?

    Findings from our fall listening sessions and what we will explore more deeply in our benchmarking research.

    By Dr. Albertina Lopez

    What should we benchmark about learning and evaluation work in philanthropy?
  • A black and white photo of a glass, reflective building with clouds reflecting in the windows. Includes CEI's Benchmarking Research logo and three abstract lines in CEI's colors (light indigo, purple, and pink).

    insight Apr 2023

    Gazing inward as we align with our values

    CEI is shifting how we approach our benchmarking research on learning and evaluation in philanthropy so that it can better support the sector’s efforts to advance racial equity and justice.

    By Dr. Albertina Lopez

    Gazing inward as we align with our values
  • A black and white photo of a tree with abstract imagery overlaid. Abstract imagery is a series of random circles connected by lines.

    publication Nov 2022

    How to do Process Tracing: A Method for Testing “How Change Happened” in Complex and Dynamic Settings

    Process tracing is a causal methodology that can help us to understand how change actually happened within a complex dynamic environment.

    By Jennifer Byers, Jewlya Lynn, Sarah Stachowiak

    How to do Process Tracing: A Method for Testing “How Change Happened” in Complex and Dynamic Settings
  • publication Jul 2022

    A Tool for Systems Change that Supports Learning in Foundations

    Foundations are systems. They have their own cultures and related assumptions, norms, standards, and practices. We encourage foundations to take stock of their learning needs with a dispassionate (evaluative) look at themselves as systems and how people work within them.

    By Tanya Beer, Julia Coffman, Jane Reisman

    A Tool for Systems Change that Supports Learning in Foundations
  • publication Mar 2022

    Toward a Trust-Based Framework for Learning and Evaluation

    What if we reimagined evaluation as an opportunity for funders to learn and evolve as stewards, rather than taking on the narrow–and virtually impossible–task of proving that limited grants make a measurable impact on longstanding, complex social issues?

    By Shaady Salehi, Dr. Chera Reid

    Toward a Trust-Based Framework for Learning and Evaluation
  • A black and white image that looks like a kaleidoscope of lines and squares. Includes abstract lines in CEI's colors (indigo, pink, purple, light indigo)

    insight Feb 2022

    How To Center Equity in Measurement, Learning, & Evaluation

    NationSwell convened a panel of experts to talk about how organizations should think about equity when engaging with measurement, learning, and evaluation.

    By Dr. Daniela Pineda, Dr. Amber Banks, Dr. Albertina Lopez, Brianna Provenzano

    How To Center Equity in Measurement, Learning, & Evaluation
  • publication Nov 2021

    We need to articulate our assumptions so that we can test them. Here’s a guide to help.

    This four-page guidance defines assumptions, explains why it is critical to articulate them, and then offers a set of prompting questions to help elicit them. Examples are included.

    By Tanya Beer, Julia Coffman

    We need to articulate our assumptions so that we can test them. Here’s a guide to help.
  • A black and white abstract image with CEI colors sprinkled throughout

    publication Aug 2021

    Holding Foundations Accountable for Equity Commitments

    Philanthropy needs to transform the structures and processes through which foundations hold power, including how they conceive of and operationalize accountability through their approaches to strategy development, evaluation, and grantee reporting and monitoring.

    By Tanya Beer, Patti Patrizi, Julia Coffman

    Holding Foundations Accountable for Equity Commitments
  • Black and white graphic of person walking in the rain holding an umbrella. Some raindrops are in CEI's colors (indigo, pink, light indigo)

    publication Apr 2021

    Approaches to Learning Amid Crises: Reflections from Philanthropy

    Explore how foundations’ approaches to learning shaped their responses to the crises of 2020. In interviews with seven foundations from Canada and the U.S. in the summer and fall of 2020, the authors applied the lens of organizational learning to how each of these foundations made sense of their reality, asked different kinds of questions to inform their thinking, and acted in new or different ways as a result.

    By Tanya Beer, Julia Coffman, Dr. Albertina Lopez, Ben Liadsky, Andrew Taylor

    Approaches to Learning Amid Crises: Reflections from Philanthropy
  • An illustration that can be paired with the blog post. You can find an audio tour of this piece here: https://www.evaluationinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Fighting-Back-Graphic-Audio-Tour.m4a

    event Mar 2021

    What It Was, What It Is, Who We Are Becoming

    The 2021 Evaluation Roundtable convening explored the first teaching case the Evaluation Roundtable ever explored: "Evaluation of the Fighting Back Initiative"

    What It Was, What It Is, Who We Are Becoming