GCRI Awarded Foundation Openness Grant; Survey Request

by Posted in Evaluation, Forum News, Member News, Philanthropy, Policy

GCRI was recently awarded a mini-grant from the Forum and the Fund for Shared Insight to support foundation openness activities in the form of a statewide dialogue.  We will be using the funding for a two-part discussion of “Learning From and With Grantees” in the fall.  As part of the evaluation for this project, Harder+Company Community Research will be conducting a few evaluation activities, including a pre-survey of all of the member foundations in the participating regional associations to understand the state of the field around openness, learning from failure, using feedback effectively, and engaging with nonprofits to catalyze more openness. In order to gather the most accurate and comprehensive picture, we need your help to ensure as many member organizations complete the survey as possible.

The survey deadline has been extended to Friday May 12th.  The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.  Survey

 

LISC RI Neighborhood Event

by Posted in Evaluation, Member News, Member Sponsored Events, Uncategorized

LISC RI Neighborhood Event

September 14, 8:30-10:30
What Makes a Neighborhood Great?  Hear What the Research Says — LISC RI Event
Chris Walker, Director of Research and Assessment for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.  He is responsible for assembling, conducting, sponsoring and disseminating research on community development’s contributions to the well-being of individuals, families and communities.  He also supports the research activities of the 30 LISC local programs throughout the United States.  Currently, he is working on studies of LISC public safety, asset building and creative placemaking programs, as well as analyses of patterns of low-income neighborhood change.  Register

Making a Difference: Evaluating Your Philanthropy — TPI

by Posted in Evaluation, Uncategorized Leave a comment

In preparation for the March 2 GCRI Roundtable on Evaluating Program Impact, you may be interested in “Making a Diffence:  Evaluating Your Philanthropy,” a report from The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), a Boston-based philanthropic advisory firm.  Quoting Mark Twain, “Supposing is good, finding out is better,” TPI posits some basic thoughts about approaching evaluation from a funder’s perspective.  One of the important nuggets is the difference between “monitoring” and “evaluation.”  According to the report, “Monitoring attempts to answer the question, ‘Did the grantee fulfill the agreement?’  Evaluation attempts to answer the question, ‘So what?’ or ‘What is the impact?'”  Another helpful quote is, “Evaluation is learning from your giving.”  How does this reflect and inform your approach to evaluation?  Join us on March 2 to learn more!  To read the full report, click here.