Impact

Path to Change

As we work with our grantees to create lasting social change, we ask ourselves: Are the foundation's strategic initiatives, approaches and grants achieving the maximum impact they can? Are there adjustments we can make to our strategies or the activities we are supporting that could yield better results?

We make long-term investments understanding that patient capital and well-reasoned risk are required to chart bold new solutions to seemingly intractable problems. We have ambitious strategies that will take years to carry out, so what we can observe or measure will necessarily be only part of the picture. In many cases, then, our assessments tell us not whether broad social change has finally been achieved, but rather, whether we are on the right path to change.

No single grant or grantee can, on its own, bring about the kinds of broad social change we seek, such as improving the transparency and effectiveness of government, preventing gender discrimination, or enabling families to move out of poverty. For this reason, we assess the effectiveness of our work at multiple levels: strategic initiative, general approach and individual grant.

Continuous Learning and Improvement

We engage in continuous learning and improvement—rather than waiting until an initiative ends to begin evaluation. Our assessment approach reflects this idea: with all of our grant-making strategies and throughout each stage of the process, we assess, learn and then make course corrections as needed.

A Mix of Tools and Approaches

We use a combination of tools to assess whether our initiatives are having an impact on social change. How we evaluate depends on where an initiative is in its life cycle. We do not believe that the only choice is between simple quantitative measures of impact and no assessment at all. We believe that sophisticated methods of qualitative and quantitative evaluations, when used appropriately, can provide insight into whether we are being effective in delivering impact to the communities we serve.

We use the best combination of tools and evaluation approaches that are relevant to the initiative at hand. If an initiative is in the early stages of implementation, more qualitative and formative methods are consistent with the need for experimentation. For initiatives that are midstream, we use a more mixed approach, drawing insight from other initiatives with similar theories of change. While we are likely to use some qualitative tools in every assessment, mature initiatives allow for the use of more quantitative methods when the intervention is well defined, target populations are known, and we have a firm idea of what measurable outcomes we can hope to achieve.

Building the Capacity to Learn

We are committed to working with grantees to build or strengthen their assessment capacity where it is needed. We work actively with our own program staff and with grantees to provide them with the knowledge to build flexible assessment and reporting tools that can capture social change.

There are many opportunities for us to learn in addition to these ongoing focused assessments. From establishing cross-initiative learning groups within the foundation to engaging with leaders in the field, other funders and researchers, we can exchange knowledge, discuss progress, and adjust our strategic initiatives, working approaches and individual grants accordingly.

How We Share What We Learn

We believe that sharing what we learn is critical, and it is part of our commitment to transparency in all aspects of grant making. The philanthropic sector struggles with evaluating itself, grading itself: understanding whether its work is making a difference. We are always searching for more effective ways to communicate what we are learning, and moving forward, we will continue to solicit and try new ideas and technologies that help facilitate sharing and dissemination. Indeed, our goal is to be an active participant in an ongoing and lively dialogue with leaders—those in the nonprofit sector, government and business as well as fellow funders—who are working in our key issue areas. Such a dialogue helps to sharpen our strategic approach to driving social change.