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publication Oct 2021

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

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

insight Jun 2021

Center for Evaluation Innovation Receives Historic Grant from Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott

Washington, DC (June 15, 2021) — Today, Center for Evaluation Innovation (CEI) announced they are the recipients of a historic contribution from novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The grant, a part of Scott’s $2.7 billion investment in equity-oriented organizations, will help CEI guide the philanthropic sector to use its power to create a just, multiracial … Continued

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

publication Apr 2021

Advocacy that Builds Power: Transforming Policies and Systems for Health and Racial Equity

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

insight Apr 2021

CEI Announces Chera Reid as New Co-Executive Director

Chera, formerly Director of the Evaluation Roundtable within CEI, is a champion of philanthropic learning and evaluation, particularly in service to racial equity and justice. The new co-leadership structure aligns with the organization-wide shift toward using evaluation and learning to increase racial equity within the historically white-led field of philanthropy.

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, Ben Liadsky, Andrew Taylor, 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, Kurian Thomas, Anne Cullen Puente

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