Resources
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.
publication Mar 2022
Toward a Trust-Based Framework for Learning and Evaluation
publication Jan 2022
Lost Causal: Debunking Myths About Causal Analysis in Philanthropy
-
When the Best Offense is a Good Defense: Understanding and Measuring Advocacy on the Defensepublication 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.
-
It’s Time to Evaluate 501(c)(4) Activitiesinsight 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.
-
Transitions and Transformations for Evaluation’s Role in Philanthropyevent 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.
-
When Opportunity Knocks, Open the Door: Evaluation Amidst Transition at the Colorado Health Foundationpublication 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.
-
No Royal Road: Finding and Following the Natural Pathways in Advocacy Evaluationpublication 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.
-
Precipitating Events and Rewards in Making a Habit of Learninginsight 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.
-
5-A-Day: Learning By Force of Habitinsight 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.
-
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The Consequences of Small Failures in Learninginsight 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.
-
Evaluation Coaching: Light Up Your Client’s Expertisepublication Jan 2018
Evaluation Coaching: Light Up Your Client’s Expertise
The practice of coaching is gaining momentum in the evaluation profession, and more evaluators are including it in their skill set. This brief introduces the use of coaching in evaluation capacity building, and provides principles and three tools for integrating coaching into evaluation practice.
-
Addendum to On the Other Side of Complexity: The McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Programpublication 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.
-
Evaluating Coalitions and Networks: Frameworks, Needs, and Opportunitiespublication Dec 2017
Evaluating Coalitions and Networks: Frameworks, Needs, and Opportunities
An impressive array of approaches, frameworks, and tools have been developed to evaluate coalitions and networks. This brief critically examines these resources, and points to challenges and opportunities that remain in efforts to assess their effectiveness and impact.
-
Contribution Analysis in Policy Work: Assessing Advocacy’s Influencepublication Nov 2017
Contribution Analysis in Policy Work: Assessing Advocacy’s Influence
How do we know what difference advocacy really makes? This brief explores the methodological application of contribution analysis, a non-experimental impact evaluation method, to advocacy and offers guidance for evaluators considering this approach.