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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Framework For Creating Systems Change, William Brown, Wynn Rosser Dec 2023

A Framework For Creating Systems Change, William Brown, Wynn Rosser

The Foundation Review

This article draws on a system-change framework developed by the Nicholson Foundation as part of a 20-year initiative to substantively change the state of New Jersey’s health and social welfare systems, and modifies and expands a single case study on system change to align with related ideas and concepts. A results-based accountability approach is integrated into the model to draw attention to the importance of monitoring and evaluation of population-based outcomes.

Drawing on extensive literature from systems change and performance management, the discussion provides insight and perspective on contemporary frameworks in systems change and the role of grantmaking foundations. The …


Why Foundations? The Theory And Strategy Of The General-Purpose Foundation, Samsher (Sam) Singh Gill Dec 2023

Why Foundations? The Theory And Strategy Of The General-Purpose Foundation, Samsher (Sam) Singh Gill

The Foundation Review

As foundations increasingly grapple with the penetration of socioeconomic dissension into every facet of our country’s public culture, it has become difficult to evade the moral salience of whether philanthropic wealth aggregation and allocation reflect or even entrench the structures of material accumulation many now see at the root of declining support for liberalism across advanced economies.

This essay argues that contrary to growing internal and external anxieties about the role and legitimacy of general-purpose foundations in the United States, there is a sound theoretical expression of them as an essential institution in a liberal democracy. The core principle of …


Learning, Unlearning, And Sprinkling In: Our Journey With Equitable Evaluation, Jane Mosley, Leigh W. Quarles, Jason L. Williams Sep 2023

Learning, Unlearning, And Sprinkling In: Our Journey With Equitable Evaluation, Jane Mosley, Leigh W. Quarles, Jason L. Williams

The Foundation Review

The Health Forward Foundation recently completed a two-year journey with the Equitable Evaluation Initiative as a practicing partner. This partnership provided us with the support to push for change that better aligned with our new focus, prioritizing racial equity and economic advancement.

The partnership also allowed us to explore a number of questions fundamental to our work in learning and evaluation: what we really know about the impact philanthropy is making in our communities; how we can explain that to board members, and how we honor the personal experiences of the people we serve.

In this article we discuss our …


A Journey Into Equitable Practice: Doing More, Doing Differently, And Doing Better, Bree Bode, Sarah Panken, Annie Murphy, Marci Scott Sep 2023

A Journey Into Equitable Practice: Doing More, Doing Differently, And Doing Better, Bree Bode, Sarah Panken, Annie Murphy, Marci Scott

The Foundation Review

The mission of the Michigan Fitness Foundation is to encourage and facilitate active lifestyles and healthy food choices through education, environmental awareness, community participation, and policy leadership. The article shares how a three-year engagement with the Equitable Evaluation Initiative led the foundation to see its grantmaking, programming, and evaluation practices anew through an equity lens.

Through naming and noticing the ways in which traditional grantmaking has contributed to the inequities that philanthropy seeks to address, the foundation was able to change its own way of working — specifically by going beyond the standard written grant proposal to actually sit with …


Front Matter Sep 2023

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Learning Circles As A Tool For Participant- Owned Evaluation, Virginia Roncaglione, Chan Brown, Jennifer James, Courtney Huff Sep 2023

Learning Circles As A Tool For Participant- Owned Evaluation, Virginia Roncaglione, Chan Brown, Jennifer James, Courtney Huff

The Foundation Review

Learning circles are an approach where individuals with a common interest meet regularly to learn from each other about a self-identified topic in a format chosen by the group. Honoring a group’s collective wisdom, centering participants’ learning needs, and prioritizing relationships and trust are all features of learning circles. This practice is of increasing interest to funders and evaluators as a tool for practicing learning and evaluation aligned with the Equitable Evaluation Framework™.

Kansas Health Foundation and its strategic learning partners, Innovation Network and Harder+Company Community Research, are exploring learning circles in two of the foundation’s initiatives: Integrated Voter Engagement …


Executive Summaries Sep 2023

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Tfr 15.3 Full Issue Sep 2023

Tfr 15.3 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens Sep 2023

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


In Conversation: Two Community Foundations In Dialogue About Their Equitable Evaluation Framework™ Practice, Madeline Brandt, Kelly Casey, Jean-Marie Callan, Joel Hicks-Rivera, Kim Leonard, Madeline Nguyen, Elena Tamanas Ragusa, Cierra Stancil, Kimberlee Salmond, Becky Seel, Kate Szczerbacki Sep 2023

In Conversation: Two Community Foundations In Dialogue About Their Equitable Evaluation Framework™ Practice, Madeline Brandt, Kelly Casey, Jean-Marie Callan, Joel Hicks-Rivera, Kim Leonard, Madeline Nguyen, Elena Tamanas Ragusa, Cierra Stancil, Kimberlee Salmond, Becky Seel, Kate Szczerbacki

The Foundation Review

This conversation between staff at the Oregon Community Foundation and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving shares how we are infusing the Equitable Evaluation Framework™ into our practice as we aim to be less extractive, shift power, and honor all ways of knowing and being as valid. In sharing this conversation, we want to pull the curtain back and offer a behind-the-scenes view into the conversations, realities, and challenges involved in doing this kind of work.

We sat down together for 90 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, and the following is a rough transcript of our time together. The intention …


The Practice Of The Equitable Evaluation Framework™: Context And Introduction To The Special Issue, Marcia A. Coné, Jara Dean-Coffey Sep 2023

The Practice Of The Equitable Evaluation Framework™: Context And Introduction To The Special Issue, Marcia A. Coné, Jara Dean-Coffey

The Foundation Review

Welcome to the special issue of The Foundation Review.

For many, this is an introduction to the Equitable Evaluation Framework™, and how some folks in U.S. philanthropy are reimagining evaluation, learning, and research through its practice. For others, you’ve been in practice of the EEF alongside us and other individuals and organizations and are, thus, represented in the offerings shared from your colleagues.

Over the past three years, in partnership with many, we’ve engaged in exploring, puzzling together, and sharing what it means to “be in practice of the EEF.” While impossible to convey the depth, breadth, and richness of …


A Team's Journey Toward More Equitable Philanthropic Research And Evaluation Practices, Kimberly A. Spring, Maria Fernanda Mata, Jeffrey Poirier, Allison Holmes, Amir François Sep 2023

A Team's Journey Toward More Equitable Philanthropic Research And Evaluation Practices, Kimberly A. Spring, Maria Fernanda Mata, Jeffrey Poirier, Allison Holmes, Amir François

The Foundation Review

This article describes the journey of the Research and Evaluation team at the Annie E. Casey Foundation to develop an approach that would allow us to rethink and deepen how we, as funders of research and evaluation, center equity in our practice.

In particular, we explain how, through this process, we began to focus on what it means to orient research and evaluation toward participant owners and came to examine the assumptions, expectations, habits, and values that we held. These experiences have presented us with opportunities to learn and be open to new ways of engaging in our work.

We …


Back Matter Sep 2023

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Systems-Change Philanthropy: It’S Essential, And It’S Our Responsibility, Emily Bhandari, Alison Mohr Boleware, Octavio N. Martinez Jr. Jun 2023

Systems-Change Philanthropy: It’S Essential, And It’S Our Responsibility, Emily Bhandari, Alison Mohr Boleware, Octavio N. Martinez Jr.

The Foundation Review

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health’s mission is to transform how communities promote mental health in everyday life. Policy engagement — fundamental to improving the social and structural determinants of mental health — has always been a strategic priority for the foundation, which has become a trusted resource for mental health and substance use policy issues in Texas. Yet, the state’s mental health and substance use policy community is limited in size, capacity, and training.

To address that reality, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Policy Academy and Policy Fellow Initiative was launched to invest in a mental health policy …


Front Matter Jun 2023

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Community Building As A Philosophy, Not An Initiative, Anne C. Kubisch, Kasi Allen, Max Gimbel Jun 2023

Community Building As A Philosophy, Not An Initiative, Anne C. Kubisch, Kasi Allen, Max Gimbel

The Foundation Review

What happens when a foundation invests in community building for the long haul? The Ford Family Foundation, a rural embedded funder in southern Oregon, has made that transition over the past decade. The result is a transformed organization with a 10-year strategic plan focused on helping rural communities build the futures that they want to see — places where children and families can thrive.

The foundation is pursuing community building not as a stand-alone strategy or “initiative,” but as a philosophy that guides local community development efforts based on capacity building and grantmaking based on partnerships. The shift to a …


Book Review: Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting On 20 Years, Kennedy Musyoka, Emily Irungu, Margaret F. Sloan Jun 2023

Book Review: Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting On 20 Years, Kennedy Musyoka, Emily Irungu, Margaret F. Sloan

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Back Matter Jun 2023

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Executive Summaries Jun 2023

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens Jun 2023

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Front Matter Mar 2023

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Editorial, Teri Behrens Mar 2023

Editorial, Teri Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Back Matter Mar 2023

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Executive Summaries Mar 2023

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


Executive Summaries Dec 2022

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.


The Ford Foundation’S Work To Build The Field Of Impact Investing, Margot Brandenburg, Abeda Iqbal Dec 2022

The Ford Foundation’S Work To Build The Field Of Impact Investing, Margot Brandenburg, Abeda Iqbal

The Foundation Review

Impact investing has grown dramatically over the past 15 years, with foundations playing a critical role through their program-related and, increasingly, mission-related investments. A smaller number, including the Ford Foundation, have dedicated grant and other programmatic resources toward growing the field. Without this funding, the metrics, engagement, policies, and norms needed to underpin capital markets at scale will be slow to materialize.

This article looks back at the long history of aligning financial investments with social values; touches on the Ford Foundation’s pioneering role in the emergence of PRIs as a tool to stretch grantmaking budgets; and details the impact …


Defining Your Double Bottom Line: Philanthropy And The Investment Landscape, Stephane Ligonde, Garrett De Temple, Tuokpe Ajuyah Dec 2022

Defining Your Double Bottom Line: Philanthropy And The Investment Landscape, Stephane Ligonde, Garrett De Temple, Tuokpe Ajuyah

The Foundation Review

Grantmaking traditionally has been at the heart of philanthropy, whereas impact was the exclusive expectation of any desired result. While there is still a place for this kind of pure push for change, many investors today expect more, leveraging the power of the markets to invest in a way that is both impactful and able to maximize their financial rewards. This is particularly true of foundations with an eye toward supporting the perpetuity of their missions and organizations.

This approach also offers a range of innovative mission-based benefits, including extending the utility of philanthropic capital and generating more capital to …


Leveraging Foundation Balance Sheets For Greater Impact: Piloting A Pooled Guarantee Program, Jane Reisman, Jim Baek, David Newsome, Christine Ryan Dec 2022

Leveraging Foundation Balance Sheets For Greater Impact: Piloting A Pooled Guarantee Program, Jane Reisman, Jim Baek, David Newsome, Christine Ryan

The Foundation Review

A guarantee instrument is a credit enhancement tool that can enable philanthropies to unlock millions or billions of dollars for societal impact. The Community Investment Guarantee Pool, created in 2019 by a collaboration of philanthropies and allied impact investors, or guarantors, is a novel initiative that uses guarantees to leverage the balance sheets of foundations and other institutional investors for enhancing the credit of intermediaries in the affordable housing, small-business, and climate markets. As the guarantees are unfunded, foundations continue to keep their endowment invested in the conventional market.

This article describes the Community Investment Guarantee Pool, details its theory …


Donor-Advised Funds And Impact Investing: A Practitioner’S View, Sam Marks Dec 2022

Donor-Advised Funds And Impact Investing: A Practitioner’S View, Sam Marks

The Foundation Review

Any discussion of foundations embracing impact investing must include some discussion of one of the largest — and growing — sources of philanthropic capital: donor-advised funds. These philanthropic accounts allow donors of all sizes to access many of the functions of a private foundation, including the potential to invest for impact. Sponsors of these funds, however, face unique challenges in catalyzing impact investments.

Like the larger institutional foundations that have led the way as mission investors, sponsors must often educate and inspire governance boards and investment committees. Unlike foundations with professional program staff, decisions regarding philanthropic resources at sponsors of …


Tfr 14.4 Full Issue Dec 2022

Tfr 14.4 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.