HOW DATA, EVIDENCE DRIVE OUR PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
At the Endowment, evaluation and continuous learning sit at the heart of our mission. For us, the big question is not “how much money can we give away?” It is: “Do the projects we support truly help people and communities?”
To determine that, we pursue rigorous, ongoing analysis of our grants, grantmaking strategies and internal processes. Through careful evaluation, we seek to understand what works and what doesn’t. When we find strong evidence of effectiveness, we support replication. When grant-funded projects don’t work as hoped, we learn and improve from any missteps. Learning sits at the heart of evaluation, and forms the cornerstone of our growth and improvement — both in how we do our work and in how we assess our impact.
The learning and evaluation lens is embedded in our organizational guiding principles. One principle says that we commit to holding ourselves and our grantees accountable for results and to direct resources where they will produce the best outcomes. We track the expected results of every grant and ask ourselves and our grantees to define clear goals, use data and rigorous analysis to assess whether those goals are being met and to adapt as needed.
We know perfection isn’t possible. But excellence is attainable, and always worth the effort.
Evaluation is integrated into all of our grantmaking
It touches planning, implementation and assessment, and focuses both externally and internally.
Our focus is on evaluation as a tool for learning
We also recognize the importance of accountability and improving performance.
Results are communicated widely
To ensure that results are used for learning, evaluation must be conducted in an open spirit of inquiry, and results must be communicated widely.
We use a mix of evaluation methods
For evaluations of grantee projects, method choice follows evaluation purpose, which follows purpose of the project.
We will measure only what we will use
To avoid undue burdens on grantees and inappropriate use of resources, we will measure only what we will use, and use everything that we measure.
Evaluations are participatory and grantee-controlled
Whenever appropriate, evaluations should be participatory and grantee-controlled.