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Session Title: Connecting Evaluation and Strategy
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Panel Session 785 to be held in Palos Verdes B on Friday, Nov 4, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Non-profit and Foundations Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Helen Davis Picher, William Penn Foundation, hdpicher@williampennfoundation.org
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| Discussant(s):
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| Patricia Patrizi, Public/Private Ventures, patti@patriziassociates.com
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| Abstract:
Why do some evaluations lead to significant changes in strategy and process and others not? This session will explore how an evaluation's design and the way it is conducted affects its utility for organizational strategy and process redesign. Foundation case experiences in which evaluation helped shape changes in process and strategy will be presented and examined, exploring such crucial dimensions as:
- When the evaluation occurs,
- What types of issues/questions the evaluation poses,
- Who is involved in the design and management of the evaluation, and how these activities are conducted,
- What factors increase or decrease the evaluation "client's" willingness to participate in and listen to the results of an evaluation, and
- How we make use of insights from successful evaluations to make the results of future evaluations more likely to be internalized, and, therefore, more effective.
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Upping the Game: Increasing the Effectiveness of a Land Conservation Grantmaking Strategy Through Evaluation
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| Helen Davis Picher, William Penn Foundation, hdpicher@williampennfoundation.org
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| Peter Szabo, Bloomingdale Management Advisors, pszabo@bloomadv.com
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In 2005, the Philadelphia-based William Penn Foundation engaged Peter Szabo of Bloomingdale Management Advisors to evaluate its landscape conservation grantmaking strategy. He analyzed 20 Foundation grants and reviewed other regionally based foundations with land conservation programs. Key recommendations included tightening the geographic focus of the Foundation's capital grantmaking, increasing the emphasis on complementary policy and program work to leverage it, and simplifying the grantmaking process. Through two additional research and evaluation projects, Szabo helped the Foundation further refine the strategy and explore alternatives, leading to a $5.5 million grant to an intermediary for technical and financial assistance to protect significant landscapes in two regional priority areas. Helen Davis Picher, Director of Evaluation and Planning at the Foundation and Peter Szabo will discuss how the engagement was structured and facilitated to ensure that findings and recommendations were used to clarify the Foundation's goals and subsequently inform changes to the strategy.
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Two Decades of Tobacco Control
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| Laura Leviton, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, llevito@rwjf.org
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| George Grob, Center for Public Program Evaluation, georgefgrob@cs.com
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In 1991, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) began to tackle one of the most intractable problems in the field of public health-tobacco addiction. Over the next two decades, it invested significant funds and talent, focusing on policy and systems changes, such as higher tobacco excise taxes, smoke-free indoor air laws, access to cessation treatment, and the federal regulation of tobacco. In January, 2009, the Foundation contracted with the Center for Public Program Evaluation to provide an independent assessment of its tobacco work and to make appropriate recommendations based on that assessment. It was particularly interested in lessons from the tobacco work that could be applied to other large public health social transformation initiatives. This presentation will describe what that study found and how the Foundation used the results.
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UC Davis Evaluation Informs Sierra Health Foundation Youth Grantmaking Strategy
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| Matt Cervantes, Sierra Health Foundation, mcervantes@sierrahealth.org
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| David Campbell, University of California, Davis, dave.c.campbell@ucdavis.edu
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| Nancy Erbstein, University of California, Davis, nerbstein@ucdavis.edu
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University of California, Davis researchers evaluated the Sierra Health Foundation's REACH Youth Development Program from 2007-2010. As the centerpiece of an $8 million youth development strategy, REACH engaged youth with adults in seven coalitions to plan and implement community change strategies. Interim and final evaluation reports helped inform ongoing foundation discussion about its youth grantmaking strategy. Evaluation team and foundation representatives discuss key factors that enabled a strong connection between the evaluation and strategy deliberations, including: 1) an evaluation design that included questions about foundation strategy; 2) extensive fieldwork that uncovered data relevant to strategy; 3) intentional efforts by the evaluators to pose strategy questions, rather than simply reporting outcomes; 4) evaluator knowledge of the regional context, and 5) a close working relationship between the evaluation team and foundation staff, facilitating adaptation both during and after the evaluation.
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