Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Knowledge Translation To Enhance Evaluation Use: A Case Example, Alison Rogers, Catherine Malla

The Foundation Review

Knowledge in the form of information suitable for decision making or advocacy by foundations is not always readily available — a situation unacceptable for those who need such information for accountability, learning, and influencing policy and practice. This article addresses how essential information about monitoring, evaluation, and lessons learned can be made available to foundations.

The Fred Hollows Foundation identified a gap in this area through an evaluation capacity-building readiness assessment, and introduced the concept of participatory, real-time monitoring, evaluation, and learning bulletins grounded in the principles of knowledge translation. This article describes how those bulletins were developed and used …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Strategic Learning In Practice: A Case Study Of The Kauffman Foundation, Matthew Carr, Brett Hembree, Nathan Madden

The Foundation Review

Increasingly, foundations and nonprofits are seeking to engage their staff in learning and reflection activities that assess successes and challenges, and then generate insights that can improve programs and funding strategies. Yet, despite the intuitive benefits, there are common challenges that often stand in the way of promoting strategic learning for continuous improvement.

For the past year, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has been focused on creating more systematic and intentional strategic learning across our organization. As part of this work we cultivated a select cohort of staff to be “learning champions,” created simple tools and processes that can more …

Reflective Practice For Learning From Experience: Navigating The Back Roads At Work, Jan Jaffe

The Foundation Review

What are the roadblocks that limit reflective practice in the field of philanthropy? Between the desire to move the needle on social change and the pressure to be productive, philanthropy as a field is understandably driven to focus on doing and resistant to taking time to reflect on practice. This article is designed to help foundations encourage leadership and staff to put their expertise into play as a learning strategy.

This article defines reflective practice and traces roots and research that can inform its use. It also reports on interviews with philanthropy practitioners about how they use various reflective practice …

Shifting Mindsets: How Meaningful Accountability Systems Can Strengthen Foundation Learning And Improve Impact, Marc J. Holley, Marcie Parkhurst

The Foundation Review

This article explores what it looks like when a foundation attempts to integrate accountability and learning practices, and presents a framework for the unique and complementary contributions that accountability and learning can make to the work of foundations.

The article also looks at the tensions that can arise when a foundation’s internal evaluation staff attempt to design, implement, and make use of accountability systems. Specifically, it identifies three problematic perspectives that can hold foundations back from full engagement in internally driven accountability initiatives, and offers practical guidance on how to shift these mindsets to more productive practices.

It concludes by …

Building A Culture Of Learning: Teaching A Complex Organization How To Fish, Tiffany Clarke, Hallie Preskill, Abigail Stevenson, Pamela Schwartz

The Foundation Review

Many social sector organizations are looking to balance their strategic plans with an ability to respond more quickly to change as it unfolds in their communities. For many years — but gaining particular urgency in 2015 — Kaiser Permanente Community Health saw a need to better understand the progress and impact of its portfolio and use its data to adapt strategy in response to its changing context.

To increase its capacity for strategic learning, Community Health worked with FSG to develop and implement a system called Measurement and Evaluation for Learning and Outcomes. While this process was tailored to Community …

Building Principle-Based Strategic Learning: Insights From Practice, Kelci M. Price, Chera Reid, Suzanne Kennedy Leahy

The Foundation Review

Strategic learning is a powerful tool for foundations to achieve greater impact, yet foundations have struggled to create practices and behaviors that effectively support them in learning about strategy. Given that many foundations are engaged in strategic philanthropy, where they have specific conditions in the world they are trying to change, it is critical that they have the capacity to effectively learn about and improve their strategies.

This article offers three principles for strategic learning, informed by the field of strategic learning and insights from practice across three foundations. Each principle is explored in terms of what it means and …

Challenges And Opportunities In Philanthropic Organizational Learning: Reflections From Fellow Grantmakers, Jennifer Chubinski, Kelley Adcock, Susan Sprigg

The Foundation Review

As the field of philanthropy has matured, increasing attention has been paid to evaluating the impact of philanthropic investments. In recent years, the scope of evaluation has expanded to include an intentional focus on organizational learning with the goal of learning from ongoing work, informing decision-making, and ultimately improving impact.

With this momentum to carry out organizational learning strategies and share successes, the sector has not yet stopped to reflect on challenges and lessons learned in the process of building the capacity for organizational learning — the messy yet meaningful middle between a desire for learning and the implementation of …

Evaluators As Conduits And Supports For Foundation Learning, Clare Nolan, Meg Long, Debra Joy Perez

The Foundation Review

Evaluators play a critical role in supporting philanthropic learning, programming, and strategy, but evaluation and learning in philanthropy is often limited in ways that impede deeper resonance and impact.

Most philanthropic evaluation is focused on the needs of individual foundations, knowledge sharing with the broader field is limited, and foundations struggle to integrate evaluation and learning as a management tool. This article makes the case that evaluators and funders can do more to build the collective capacity of evaluators working in philanthropy in order to enhance their contributions to community change.

This article also examines the ways that evaluation in …

Full Issue #11.1

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 25, February 25, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 043, Number 12, February 25, 2019, Grand Valley State University

2018-2019, Volume 43

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 24, February 18, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

The Boundaries Are Blurring Between Philanthropy And Business, Michael Moody

Research, Reports, and Publications

No abstract provided.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 043, Number 11, February 11, 2019, Grand Valley State University

2018-2019, Volume 43

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 23, February 11, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 22, February 4, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

A Catalogue Of Incunabula In The University Libraries Grand Valley State University Part Two: Leaves And Fragments, Robert Beasecker

Books and Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Accessible Customer Service Practices, Kristin Meyer, Samantha Minnis, Kiersten Quilliams

Library Reports and Communication

Grand Valley State University and University Libraries (UL) are committed to inclusion and diversity. Additionally, University Libraries has a shared service philosophy—Steps to Giving Great Service—to guide how we deliver customer service across the Libraries. The following practices are meant to provide employees with practical tips on how to provide accessible customer service. These practices align with our larger service philosophy and support the university’s values of inclusion and equity. Accessibility is defined by the University Libraries IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) committee as: “Ensuring our tools, devices, services, and environments are available to and usable by as many …

Economic Impact Study: Downtown Market Grand Rapids, Grand Valley State University, Christian Glupker

Other Faculty Publications

Purpose of study This study focuses on the economic impact of the Market from four perspectives:

1. Visitors who traveled for the express purpose of visiting the Market
2. Visitors who visited the Market while already in Grand Rapids
3. Tenant activity within the Market
4. The Market’s impact on local business revenue and job creation

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 043, Number 10, January 28, 2019, Grand Valley State University

2018-2019, Volume 43

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 20, January 21, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 19, January 14, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 043, Number 09, January 14, 2019, Grand Valley State University

2018-2019, Volume 43

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 18, January 7, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Consultants In The Classroom: Pilot Study Assessing Multidisciplinary Center Collaboration, Carl Brown, Ashley B. Rapp, Adrienne Wallace, Jennifer Torreano, Melanie Rabine, Patrick Johnson

Knowledge Market

Communication center clients come in various forms. Many centers work with individuals and groups while some work with entire classrooms, departments, or colleges. Very few centers both partner with other campus consulting services and interact with large units. While a considerable amount of literature focuses on one-on-one consultations and some work focuses on collaboration between similar centers (McCall, Ellis, & Murphy, 2017), little, if any, research deals with these unique partnerships and how they collaborate to serve groups. This article examines how one communication center partnered with two other campus consulting services to create a purposeful and collaborative relationship with …

The Value Of Collaboration: Crossing Departmental Boundaries To Create Sustainable Learning Objects, Maya Hobscheid

Conference Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Stronger Together: Nonsummativity And The Grand Valley State University Knowledge Market, Carl J. Brown, Jennifer Torreano, Jeannine Lane, Skye Gregory-Hatch

Knowledge Market

This article discusses the history, purpose, and services that make up the Grand Valley State University Knowledge Market. The Knowledge Market is made up of faculty and staff directors leading four unique groups of specialized student-consultants who collaborate with their peers. While each service has a unique specialty, The Knowledge Market unites to guide students through the collective academic processes of researching, writing, speaking, and developing visual aids. The Knowledge Market is partnered with the university library in mission, service, and location. It provides a unique and replicable model that can be applied at a variety of campuses who have …

Not What You Expected: Implementing Design Thinking As A Leadership Practice, Michelle Boisvenue-Fox, Kristin Meyer

Books and Contributions to Books

Changing user needs have created new opportunities for libraries, requiring evolving leadership practices that support innovation and rapid change. Design thinking can provide leaders with a concrete process to move toward action. The authors – one an executive administrator at a large, multi-branch public library, the other an academic librarian who leads a small team – share how design thinking has positively influenced their leadership practices. The benefits of implementing this flexible process have included improved user experience, more creative solutions, wise investments, staff empowerment, increased transparency and trust, and employee learning and development. Both leaders experienced these benefits even …

Masked By Trust: Bias In Library Discovery, Matthew Reidsma

Books and Contributions to Books

The rise of Google and its integration into nearly every aspect of our lives has pushed libraries to adopt similar "Google-like" search tools, called discovery systems. Because these tools are provided by libraries and search scholarly materials rather than the open web, we often assume they are more "accurate" or "reliable" than their general-purpose peers like Google or Bing. But discovery systems are still software written by people with prejudices and biases, library software vendors are subject to strong commercial pressures that are often hidden behind diffuse collection-development contracts and layers of administration, and they struggle to integrate content from …