Resources

  • 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
  • publication May 2021

    How Far Dare an Evaluator Go Toward Saving the World?

    This article offers raw qualitative data as a supplement to the 2021 article authored by Michael Quinn Patton and published in the American Journal of Evaluation titled: "How Far Dare an Evaluator Go Toward Saving the World? Redux, Update, and a Reflective Practice Facilitation Tool."

    By Michael Quinn Patton

    How Far Dare an Evaluator Go Toward Saving the World?
  • publication Apr 2021

    Policy Wins Aren’t Enough; We Need Advocacy that Builds Power

    While getting policy wins and systems changes is important, what does it mean to center impacted communities as the drivers of change? What does it mean to make building their power the ultimate goal of advocacy work? What does it require of the broader ecosystem of advocacy actors who also are involved in the work? CEI's evaluation report of The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities initiative explores these questions and more.

    By Julia Coffman, Gigi Barsoum, Albertina Lopez, Mariah Brothe Gantz

    Policy Wins Aren’t Enough; We Need Advocacy that Builds Power
  • 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

    Approaches to Learning Amid Crises: Reflections from Philanthropy
  • 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
  • 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

    Tools and Tips for Implementing Contribution Analysis
  • 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

    Co-creating our story: A hybrid participatory case approach to evaluating and accelerating organizational change
  • event Dec 2020

    American Evaluation Association (2020)

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

    American Evaluation Association (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

    Q&A: Washington Evaluators in conversation with Dr. Chera Reid
  • publication Oct 2020

    Supporting Effective Early Childhood Advocacy

    Using an evaluative method called contribution analysis, we developed a “contribution story” that assesses SCAN’s contribution to a key ECE policy outcome or win in each state: New Hampshire, New Mexico, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

    By Mariah Brothe Gantz, Kat Athanasiades, Julia Coffman

    Supporting Effective Early Childhood Advocacy
  • presentation Oct 2020

    ACE Evaluation Network Webinar Series

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

    By London Losey, Karla Mendez

    ACE Evaluation Network Webinar Series
  • 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

    Can Foundations Radically Transform How They Learn?