presentation Jul 2019

How to Ask Powerful Questions [Webinar]

The kinds of questions we often pose — Did the intervention work? What are we learning about a particular issue? — may lead to information that is a useful input into learning, but they often don’t help us determine what to do next. This webinar shows us how to ask questions that, if answered, will make a difference in how we do our work.

By Tanya Beer

insight Jul 2019

Are you really ready for developmental evaluation? You may have to get out of your own way.

Developmental evaluation can create anxieties and disappointments for evaluation commissioners and evaluators who apply conventional evaluation routines to an evaluation endeavor that is fundamentally different.

By Tanya Beer

publication Jun 2019

When the Best Offense is a Good Defense: Understanding and Measuring Advocacy on the Defense

With advocacy, a “win” can mean avoiding a disadvantageous policy or holding the line on past wins. This brief covers how advocates conceptualize five different types of defense, and how to think about defense-specific outcomes, impact, and evaluation.

By Sarah Stachowiak, Joel Gutierrez

insight Jun 2019

It’s Time to Evaluate 501(c)(4) Activities

Advocacy evaluators need to reckon with evaluating 501(c)(4) tactics, otherwise we will find ourselves unable to speak meaningfully to the progress and setbacks our clients experience.

By Kat Athanasiades

event Jun 2019

Transitions and Transformations for Evaluation’s Role in Philanthropy

The 2019 Evaluation Roundtable convening explored how evaluation leaders—working within or with foundations—can manage change not just defensively, but proactively and productively.

publication Jun 2019

When Opportunity Knocks, Open the Door: Evaluation Amidst Transition at the Colorado Health Foundation

The Colorado Health Foundation experienced multiple organizational transitions in a short period of time, including two strategy redesigns, culture and values shifts, new expectations and assumption about roles and performance, and a new CEO. This teaching case invites reflection on the role of evaluation staff and consultants amidst the uncertainty and ambiguity of organizational change.

By Susan Parker

publication Jun 2019

Realigning Foundation Trustees to Incentivize Learning

A common barrier for the development of a foundation's learning culture is how staff and boards engage. The problem is that most of the routines in the board room are actually based on the mental model that social change is a technocratic problem-solving endeavor. There could be a lot of power in starting to change the routines and habits that hold that technocratic mental model in place.

By Tanya Beer

publication Mar 2019

No Royal Road: Finding and Following the Natural Pathways in Advocacy Evaluation

As efforts at driving change become more diffuse, involve more actors, and have more transformational goals, we need a radically different approach to thinking about and assessing effective advocacy. Clear answers, certain judgments, and simple tools won't result in good representations of reality. This brief proposes ideas for adjusting how we approach advocacy monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

By Jim Coe, Rhonda Schlangen

insight Jun 2018

5-A-Day: Learning By Force of Habit

Establishing a learning organization or culture is such a big goal that it can overwhelm our ability to act on it. This piece, published on Medium, explores how building learning habits into common routines makes it more manageable, and creates small wins that can lead to big change. Focusing on habits ensures that learning is not a separate activity, but rather is integrated into our day-to-day work.

By Julia Coffman

insight Jun 2018

Precipitating Events and Rewards in Making a Habit of Learning

Better habits around learning are critical to improving philanthropic practice. This piece looks at what needs to happen before and after habit change to make a new way of working stick.

By Kat Athanasiades

insight May 2018

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The Consequences of Small Failures in Learning

It was the worst U.S. maritime disaster in three decades, involving an experienced captain with a reputation for safety. This article, published on Medium, explains went wrong and what it can teach us about the often-overlooked factors that affect our learning and decisions.

By Julia Coffman

publication Jan 2018

Addendum to On the Other Side of Complexity: The McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program

This addendum makes clarifications to the teaching case of The McKnight Foundation's Collaborative Crop Research Program and its evaluation. It adds detail on the program's developmental evaluation.

By Michael Quinn Patton, Jane Maland Cady