Public Affairs Commons^™

How, For Whom, And Under What Conditions: Using A Causal Pathways Approach To Support The Goals Of Philanthropic Evaluation, Drew Koleros, Sophie Bright, Dana Harrison, Megan Shoji, Tina Fletcher

The Foundation Review

Causal pathways approaches are gaining traction as evaluators seek methods that move beyond descriptive analysis to rigorously explain how, for whom, and under what conditions change occurs in complex systems. Yet there remains limited practical guidance on how to operationalize these approaches in real-world philanthropic contexts or assess their quality.

This article addresses these gaps through a case study of an evaluation taking a causal pathways approach that examines students’ experiences in four virtual and hybrid K–12 learning models. Using a realist evaluation design within a broader causal pathways orientation, the authors collaboratively developed theories of change, iteratively tested and …

12-Year Report Of The Massachusetts Community Mediation Center Grant Program (Fiscal Years 2013 – 2024), Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report examines the development, performance, and impact of the Massachusetts Community Mediation Center Grant Program during its first 12 years, covering fiscal years 2013 through 2024. Established under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 75, Section 47, the Grant Program provides operational and programmatic funding to qualified community mediation centers offering free or low-cost dispute resolution services through trained community volunteers. The Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration at the University of Massachusetts Boston administers and evaluates the program.

Over the period examined, the Commonwealth’s annual appropriation increased from $650,000 in FY2013 to approximately $3.2 million in FY2024. This investment stabilized community …

Defining Community Philanthropy: Principles And Dimensions Of A Transformative Practice, Michael D. Layton

The Foundation Review

Community philanthropy is increasingly promoted as an alternative to institutional, top-down philanthropy, yet the term remains contested. In the Global North, it is typically associated with community foundations, while in the Global South the emphasis is on community itself.

This article offers a definition of community philanthropy as a practice rooted in context and power rather than a single institutional form. It identifies five transformative characteristics that distinguish community philanthropy from conventional giving and translates these principles into seven dimensions that can be used to identify and assess community philanthropy in practice.

For practitioners, evaluators, and funders, this framework offers …

Massachusetts Community Mediation Center (Cmc) Grant Program: Fiscal Year 2025 Evaluation Report, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The CMC Grant Program remains a vital statewide investment in equitable access to justice and community well-being in Massachusetts. In FY2025, the Commonwealth allocated $3,100,202 to the Program, with $2,376,002 awarded directly to 12 community mediation Centers for operational support, technical assistance, and participation in statewide initiatives. These funds continued to serve as the financial foundation of the community mediation system, accounting for half of Centers’ collective revenue and enabling them to leverage an additional $2,435,797 from private, municipal, state, and federal partners—demonstrating strong public return on state appropriations. Despite a funding reduction in FY2025, the Program generated …

Deepening Our Understanding Of Resilience: How Evaluation Can Contribute, Michael Quinn Patton

The Foundation Review

Resilience is the capacity to experience a significant shock and adapt as needed to survive and move forward. The current age is one of constant system shocks economically, environmentally, and politically. Resilience becomes essential for navigating these and other risks.

Individuals, organizations, communities, and ecosystems manifest different degrees and types of resilience requiring appropriately matched evaluation responses. In considering new directions for philanthropic evaluation, this article offers for the first time an overarching framework of four different responses to system shocks and disruptions. This leads to four different evaluation criteria: continuity, adaptation, innovation, and capitulation.

In addition to the long-term …

Base Building Evaluation: Three Opportunities To Improve Its Use And Relevance, Katie Fox, Margaret A. Post

The Foundation Review

The concept of base building comes from the traditions of electoral and labor organizing, where organizers focus on drawing leadership from a specific constituency or geography. Base building is foundational to organizing efforts. It involves the recruitment, training, and leadership development of people who are often most directly impacted by the issues and causes that organizing focuses on.

In recent years, base building has seen increased interest and investment from the philanthropic sector as funders recognize base building as critical to community-led change. As funders expand their investment in base building, they increasingly seek information and data about base building …

Beyond Transactions: Building Relational Partnerships Between Evaluators And Foundations, Lauren Beriont, Cassie Bruny, Madison N. Garcia, Ebonie Guyton, Chelsey Hurt, Leah Josephson, Kate Mallula, Mary Mattson, Rory Neuner, Ramona Perry, Andrea Prado Tuma, Sarah Smith, Kim Van Der Woerd, Sofia Vitalis

The Foundation Review

The co-authors have framed this article as an emergent learning journal of sorts, summarizing observations, findings, and key takeaways; walking the reader through the process, key tensions, and classic myths they identified; and highlighting principles they uncovered that underlie and lay the groundwork for imagining more equitable ways for evaluation consultants and foundations to act in relationships.

Evaluating Efforts To Shift Power Through Listening: Defining Power And Listening To All Sides, Sarah Stachowiak, Juan Clavijo

The Foundation Review

There are a variety of ways funders and nonprofits are trying to shift the power dynamics between those who typically have held it (i.e., funders and organizations) to those who have unique and important expertise: those most affected by the problems the social sector is trying to solve.

In this article, we share lessons from two evaluations that sought to understand how those who were being listened to experienced the listening process, exploring the degree to which people felt heard and their experiences of how, and in what ways, power shifted for them. One evaluation focused on the experiences of …

Strengthening Evaluation Contracting Partnerships: Fostering Stronger Relationships Between Funders And Small, Proximate Evaluation Firms, Hippolyt Pul, Carlisle Levine

The Foundation Review

Foundations often support initiatives in multiple countries and cultures, including within the United States, with limited access to or familiarity with the people and local contexts in which activities occur. To gain a deep and nuanced understanding of their investments’ relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability, foundations are often eager to partner with evaluators close to the contexts and people who participate in and are most affected by their investments.

Yet, foundations’ procurement and contracting systems may not be built for these partnerships. Through the Strengthening Evaluation Contracting Partnerships Initiative, we are addressing this challenge by helping foundations, small and proximate evaluation …

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP), administered by the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston), remains a critical resource for addressing housing instability and homelessness across the Commonwealth. By offering free mediation services to tenants and landlords/property managers at every stage of a housing dispute, the program plays a pivotal role in fostering housing stability.

Established in FY2021 as part of the Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI) to mitigate housing crises during the COVID-19 pandemic and coordinated through the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC), the HMP has continued …

A Philanthropic Theory Of Systems Transformation For Advancing Equity In The Polycrisis, Michael Quinn Patton, Ruth Richardson

The Foundation Review

The term “polycrisis” calls attention to overlapping, mutually reinforcing, and potentially disastrous trends and crises that are interconnected, like climate change, increasing global inequities, widespread disinformation, pandemic dangers, the ravages of war, and pollution of land, air, and water. Vulnerable and marginalized populations are most directly affected by the intensifying problems that are manifested in the polycrisis.

This article, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of The Foundation Review, invites readers to ponder the risks posed by the polycrisis and how philanthropy might look beyond business as usual to respond to those risks. We review the evolution of philanthropic …

The Weight Of Power: Reframing Evaluation In Philanthropy To Amplify The Voices Of Communities Of Color, Martena Reed, Blanca Flor Guillen-Woods, Kantahyanee W. Murray, Dabney Brice, Ashley Barnes, Liza Mueller

The Foundation Review

Philanthropy’s current structure and practices perpetuate a relationship with nonprofits led by people of color that can keep foundations removed from the work and keep these nonprofits fighting to stay effective and sustainable. When equitable and responsive strategies to support grant partners are implemented, however, relationships and power begin to shift.

This article explores the complexities of philanthropy’s relationship with POC-led nonprofit and grassroots organizations as mediated by evaluation and reporting practices. By critically analyzing these practices and power dynamics within philanthropy, it aims to uncover the root causes of disparities and establish a basis for creating pathways toward greater …

Goal-Free Evaluation: An Orientation For Foundations’ Evaluations – Updated 2024, Brandon W. Youker, Allyssa Ballard

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2014, has been revised for The Foundation Review with substantive additions, new examples, and minor updates.

Goal-free evaluation is a model in which official or stated program goals and objectives are unknown by the evaluator, serving as a counter to assessing impact solely according to goal achievement. Foundation-supported program evaluation, however, has historically focused on goal attainment as intuitively and inextricably linked to evaluation.

This focus has persisted despite the fact that goal-free product evaluations have been a norm for more than 75 years. Yet persuading funders to consider …

Lost Causal: Debunking Myths About Causal Analysis In Philanthropy – With 2024 Prologue, Jewlya Lynn, Sarah Stachowiak, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2022, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

What if philanthropic evaluations told us that changes in the world had occurred, as well as how and why they occurred, including whether what foundations funded and grantees did contributed to those changes? What if evaluations made change pathways more visible, tested hypotheses and assumptions, and generated new insights based on what happened in the “black box” of systems change strategies? This type of learning comes from causal analysis — inquiry that explores cause-and-effect relationships.

Yet currently in …

Raising The Bar — Integrating Cultural Competence And Equity: Equitable Evaluation – With 2024 Prologue, Jara Dean-Coffey, Jill Casey, Leon D. Caldwell

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2014, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

Whether implicit or explicit, social justice and human rights are part of the mission of many philanthropies. Evaluation produced, sponsored, or consumed by these philanthropies that doesn’t pay attention to the imperatives of cultural competency may be inconsistent with their missions.

The American Evaluation Association’s Statement on Cultural Competence provides those who produce, sponsor, and use evaluation an opportunity to examine and align their practices and policies within a context of racial and cultural equity and inclusion. The …

Passing In The Dark: Making Visible Philanthropy’S Hidden And Conflicting Mental Models For Systems Change, Jewlya Lynn, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

While the need for philanthropy to focus on systems change as a way to scale and sustain impact is now widely accepted, we see the sector largely failing to recognize that there are different mental models for how to change systems. Sometimes the approaches foundations use are based on competing mental models or models that are not a good fit for the systems, problems, strategies, or practices they are using.

We see two mental models for systems change being used in philanthropy: systems dynamics and systems emergence. Strategies that use the systems-dynamics mental model aim at points of high leverage …

A Foundation’S Theory Of Philanthropy: What It Is, What It Provides, How To Do It – With 2024 Prologue, Michael Quinn Patton, Nathaniel Foote, James Radner

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2015, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

This article argues that philanthropic endeavors should be undergirded by a theory of philanthropy. Articulating a theory of philanthropy is a way for a foundation to make explicit what is often only implicit, thereby enabling internal and external actors to pose and resolve significant questions, understand and play important roles more fully and effectively, and improve performance by enhancing alignment across complex systems.

A theory of philanthropy articulates how and why a foundation will use its resources to …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Evaluating Evaluation Policy In The X Foundation, Peter Dahler-Larsen

The Foundation Review

Evaluation policies, which are becoming increasingly important for philanthropic foundations, communicate internally and externally about how evaluations are planned, designed, and managed. An evaluation policy also prescribes how the use of evaluation systematically reflects the mission and role of a foundation. Not much is known, however, about how evaluation policies are developed and changed in practice. Few, if any, foundations have published an evaluation of their evaluation policy. This article, written by an external evaluator, describes how an evaluation policy was developed at a Danish grantmaker committed to supporting innovative methods in human services. Using this foundation as an example, …

Theory Of A Philanthropic Alliance: The Case Of The Global Alliance For The Future Of Food, Michael Quinn Patton, Ruth Richardson

The Foundation Review

Different kinds of action entities need different theoretical frameworks. A theory of change hypothesizes how an intervention is expected to achieve desired impacts in the world. A theory of philanthropy articulates a foundation’s role in supporting specific kinds of theories of change. This article extends that analysis to a theory of philanthropic alliance, which explains and hypothesizes how several foundations working together can have greater collective impact than they could working separately. A theory of philanthropy will be contrasted with a theory of philanthropic alliance, using the Global Alliance for the Future of Food to illustrate and illuminate the distinction …

A Promising Place-Based Collaborative Impact Investing Fund Strengthens Community And Informs Philanthropic Practice, Benjamin Kerman, Clara Miller

The Foundation Review

A recent evaluation of the Western New York Impact Investment Fund adds to the proof-of-concept literature regarding “doing good and doing well” while pointing to experience-based best practices in philanthropic impact investing. Born of a collaboration between regional and national philanthropies, the fund brings together corporate, individual, and philanthropic investors to deliver an inclusive impact investment mechanism. Founded in 2017, the fund evolved from concept to operating entity, focusing on mitigating capital gaps, longterm economic decline, and wealth divides.

Evaluation at Year 5 describes how the professionally managed, collaboratively governed fund has attracted and deployed capital, contributing to ecosystem improvements …

Advancing Philanthropic Strategy Through Evaluative Thinking: One Foundation’S Approach, Christine Baker, Margaret Eigsti, Kathryn Racine, Laurence O’Connell

The Foundation Review

The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland supports Catholic sisters and their ministries in northeast Ohio through the grantmaking, partnership, capacitybuilding, and evaluation efforts of its Catholic Sisters Program Area. The decline of sisters actively engaged in ministry, due both to their rising median age and a decades-long decline in their overall numbers, called for a reconsideration and likely revision of the CSPA existing theory of change.

Unlike other strategic approaches at the foundation, such as ending homelessness or improving health equity, transitioning from sister-led to lay-led leadership of ministries remained largely unexplored: Basic research was lacking, and model practices …

Out Of Crisis, Learnings Shape Future Grantmaking, Stacie S. Cherner

The Foundation Review

Like other philanthropic organizations during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jim Joseph Foundation took steps to loosen grant requirements, support CEOs and leadership teams, and provide funding for emergencies and innovations.

The foundation, which strives to bring consistent expertise with evaluation and research in untroubled times and whose mission is to foster effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews, has a unique perspective when reflecting on learning. So another area that required flexibility was in the re-examination of learning plans to take advantage of the “forced experimentation” imposed by the pandemic lockdown.

In March 2020, the foundation …

Lost Causal: Debunking Myths About Causal Analysis In Philanthropy, Jewlya Lynn, Sarah Stachowiak, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

What if philanthropic evaluations told us that changes in the world had occurred, as well as how and why they occurred, including in what ways foundation funding and grantees contributed to those changes? What if evaluations made change pathways more visible, tested hypotheses and assumptions, and generated new insights based on what happened in the “black box” of systems change strategies? This type of learning comes from causal analysis — inquiry that explores cause-andeffect relationships.

Yet currently in philanthropy, particularly for strategies and initiatives that feature high complexity, few evaluations use robust techniques for understanding causality. Instead, philanthropic evaluation tends …

A Mission To Improve Health: Lessons From Missouri’S Expanding Coverage Initiative, Anna Saltzman, Shayla Spilker, Megan Klenke-Isgriggs

The Foundation Review

To support the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, in 2013 Missouri Foundation for Health launched the Expanding Coverage Initiative. The fiveyear effort sought to reduce Missouri’s uninsured rate from 13% to less than 5% by developing a broad-based state coalition and employing a three-pronged approach of awareness building and outreach, enrollment assistance, and increasing health literacy.

While the initiative did not achieve its rate-reduction goal, the rate of uninsured Missourians dropped to 9% during the ECI’s time frame, a decrease on par with the national average despite the fact that at the time Missouri was one of 17 states …

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Equitable Economic Development Strategies, Amy Minzner

The Foundation Review

There is anecdotal evidence that equitable economic development activities can foster inclusive growth and unlock the full potential of local economies by dismantling barriers and expanding opportunities for low-income people and communities of color. These strategies are being used with increasing frequency, and advocates and funders are pressing for their use throughout the country. Because of this, there is a need to better understand the link between equitable economic development activities and their ability to foster equitable opportunities and resulting impacts.

Establishing this link will require a new measurement strategy because traditional measures of economic development effectiveness focus on communitywide …

Using Social Network Analysis To Understand The Perceived Role And Influence Of Foundations, Todd L. Ely, Katie Edwards, Rachel Hogg Graham, Danielle Varda

The Foundation Review

Collaboration between foundations and other organizations is critical to the success of foundation-supported initiatives, but the power dynamics among foundations, grantees, and their broader communities can be challenging. Social network analysis is a tool to assess collaboration among organizations and its outcomes. A unique yet often underemphasized benefit of this method of analysis is its focus on dyadic relationships between organizations, which presents an opportunity for foundations to evaluate their role in a network and how they are perceived by the very organizations whose missions they support.

This article leverages a social network analysis of community partners focused on addressing …