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 Ben Liadsky, Andrew Taylor, Julia Coffman, Tanya Beer, Albertina Lopez

publication Mar 2021

Tools and Tips for Implementing Contribution Analysis

Get practical lessons on applying contribution analysis to advocacy impact evaluations, especially when dealing with time and resource constraints. Contribution analysis does not seek to "prove" the role of a particular actor or set of actors in bringing about change, but instead to develop a plausible, credible evidence-based narrative to answer causal questions about their influence.

By Laura Hopkins

publication Jan 2021

Co-creating our story: A hybrid participatory case approach to evaluating and accelerating organizational change

This brief describes an evaluative approach we took to an organizational change process at a foundation that could be useful to evaluators.

By Tanya Beer, Susan Parker, Anne Cullen Puente, Kurian Thomas

event Dec 2020

American Evaluation Association (2020)

CEI staff presented at the virtual American Evaluation Association conference in October 2020.

insight Nov 2020

Q&A: Washington Evaluators in conversation with Dr. Chera Reid

This conversation originally took place during an event hosted by Washington Evaluator members on November 5th, 2020, and is cross-posted at https://washingtonevaluators.org.

By Emily Bango, Chera Reid

presentation Oct 2020

ACE Evaluation Network Webinar Series

Learn about the Advancing Culturally-responsive and Equitable (ACE) Evaluation Network

By London Losey, Karla Mendez

insight Aug 2020

Dr. Chera Reid is the New Leader of the Evaluation Roundtable

Chera takes over the Roundtable’s leadership at a pivotal time in its evolution. Going forward, the Evaluation Roundtable will focus on organizing participants to influence the philosophy and norms of practice in philanthropy so that evaluation and learning help to advance racial equity and justice.

insight Aug 2020

Can Foundations Radically Transform How They Learn?

In 2020, we are seeing some fundamental shifts in how foundations are operating and attempting to learn. How might we use our experience right now to understand something new about the organizational and sector conditions that are necessary to make real and honest learning and adaptation possible and in service to equity?

By Tanya Beer, Julia Coffman, Jane Reisman, Ben Liadsky, Andrew Taylor

presentation Jul 2020

Re-Thinking How We Work with Boards on Evaluation and Learning

Most board room routines are based on the mental model that social change is a technocratic problem-solving endeavor. So we incentivize and reward staff who project a degree of certainty about how social change happens that's just not real because the change process is much more complex.

By Tanya Beer

insight Jun 2020

It’s Time to Let Go of Tired Narratives about Talent in Evaluation

Social sector conversations about talent often focus on increasing diversity, building skillsets, and improving hiring and management. But to solve tough social problems, we need to let go of tired narratives about talent and work together to dismantle oppression in the evaluation field.

By Clare Nolan

insight Jun 2020

We stand with our Black colleagues, friends, and loved ones

It is our responsibility to try to mend the damage we and our profession have wrought, and to work with others to rethink evaluation’s purpose and positioning in the sector so that it advances equity instead of helps to keep inequity rooted in place.

By Tanya Beer, Mariah Brothe Gantz, Kat Athanasiades, Julia Coffman, Albertina Lopez

presentation May 2020

Why is Evaluation So White?

In this presentation, Vidhya Shanker, PhD, and Carolina De La Rosa Mateo, MPH, explore how the field of evaluation has approached race, the implications of that approach, and the promise of generative networks to amplify the work of evaluators who identify as Indigenous, Black, or People of Color (IBPOC), as illustrated by one such network recently formed in Minnesota.

By Vidhya Shanker, Carolina De La Rosa Mateo