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The Legacy Of A Philanthropic Exit: Lessons From The Evaluation Of The Hewlett Foundation’S Nuclear Security Initiative, Anne Gienapp, Jane Reisman, David Shorr, Amy Arbreton

The Foundation Review

As its seven-year Nuclear Security Initiative wound down in late 2014, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation engaged ORS Impact to conduct a summative evaluation. That evaluation yielded insights pertinent to future work on nuclear security and other fields where policy-related investments, strategies, and goals are prioritized, as well as insights regarding Hewlett’s approach to the initiative exit.

During the life of the initiative, significant changes in the geopolitical landscape influenced both the relevance and the expected pace of advancement of its established goals and targets. Rather than focusing on whether identified targets had been achieved in a narrow “success/failure” …

Lessons About Evaluating Health-Coverage Advocacy Across Multiple Campaigns And Foundations, Leslie Foster, Mary Harrington, Sheila Hoag, Debra Lipson

The Foundation Review

This article draws on a dozen years’ experience in evaluating major consumerhealth advocacy initiatives to build the knowledge base about advocacy evaluation. The authors explain how their evaluations were strengthened by articulating a detailed theory of change and emphasizing assessment of interim outcomes from many perspectives and methods.

Even with comprehensive data and integrated analysis, however, some ambiguity in the results is inevitable; there is no completely objective way to determine the effectiveness of an advocacy initiative. Moreover, sometimes solid or even exceptional advocacy efforts do not lead to desired policy outcomes. Advocacy initiatives that fail initially may be groundwork …

Defining, Building, And Measuring Capacity: Findings From An Advocacy Evaluation, Debra A. Strong, Jung Y. Kim

The Foundation Review

· Funders often focus their grants to build capacity, recognizing the important roles that leadership, skills, and infrastructure have on an organization’s effectiveness in carrying out its mission.

· This article reports on results from Mathematica Policy Research’s evaluation of Consumer Voices for Coverage, a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support the role of consumer health advocacy coalitions in 12 states.

· The foundation based the program on a study that identified six core advocacy capacities, and designed it to strengthen these capacities.

· The evaluation found that the level of funding, substantial and targeted technical …