Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Hello AEA community! We are Evan Michelson, Isabella Gee, and Jessica Klynsma, and we comprise the Energy and Environment program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation where we support interdisciplinary social science research, training, networking, and dissemination activities to inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States.
Since our program was formalized in 2014, we have worked to better understand the impact of our grantmaking. What began as an informal process of cataloguing grantee outputs evolved into an internal database that tracks publications, conferences, students supported, and additional funding raised through Sloan-supported research. The database serves as a light-touch tool for monitoring measurable outcomes while helping us identify broader trends over time, and has also informed our strategic planning process.
We are pleased to share the lessons we learned along the way about incorporating assessment into routine operations, using the information strategically, and adapting the process over time.
We initially needed something we could build and maintain with limited staff time and resources available. A simple Excel spreadsheet has worked well for us because it is organized, straightforward, and adaptable. We focused on tracking categories most relevant to our program strategy of generating new knowledge, supporting early-career scholars, and connecting research to practice. Starting simple was valuable, allowing us to iterate based on our needs and priorities. For example, we initially wanted to track conference attendees, but it quickly became apparent that would become intractable, so we removed that category.
The process was still time-consuming; establishing the tracker tool took about four months of dedicated time from a single team member, but starting with the simplest option got us insight sooner, prevented us from getting locked into a more onerous process, and gives us the flexibility to move to a more advanced system in the future if our needs change. Ultimately, it is important to be honest about the capacity you have available, but getting going is the most important step.
When beginning the tracking effort, our grantee reporting guidelines asked for a loose narrative structure that included general descriptions of outputs and progress updates relative to grant metrics and goals. The level of detail varied greatly between reports, sometimes requiring us to fill in the gaps where information was not provided.
To facilitate the tracking process without adding undue burden on grantees, we limited the amount of new information we asked for and then clarified and updated our guidelines to better align with how we extract information. We now ask for information on written outputs and students in table format with categories that match those used in the database while also retaining the overall narrative structure of the reports to allow grantees freedom in their responses and ensure we don’t miss key qualitative updates.
In order to understand the full impact of a funded project, quantitative outputs require qualitative context to fully situate outcomes within the broader research landscape. That remains true. We learn so much from reading those report narratives, from cutting-edge research results to contemporary policy impacts. To fully connect outputs to impact, it is critical to have context that can only be provided by making sense of full reports.
Retaining flexibility in the reporting process is important so funders can be responsive to not only their needs but also those of their grantees. Perhaps the most important lesson we learned is that output tracking is just one component of a well-stocked portfolio of impact assessment techniques and approaches.
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