Browse foundations Resources
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Nonprofit and Foundation Advocacy Blog The Nonprofit and Foundation Advocacy Blog describes itself as "a forum hosted by Alliance for Justice to strengthen the voices of nonprofits and foundations and to provide a better understanding of the laws that govern their participation in the policy process." Online since October 2005, this multi-contributor blog offers news, commentary, and technical assistance tips for advocates and funders. Author: Alliance for Justice Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Oct 1, 2005 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Nonprofit Good Practice Guide This free online guide captures and organizes good practices for nonprofits and foundations. Literally thousands of effectiveness-building tips and resources are available here, searchable by topic. Topics include:
- Advocacy,
- Evaluation,
- Financial management,
- Fundraising,
- Governance,
- Marketing and communications,
- Organizational management,
- Technology, and
- Volunteer management.
Author: Morales-Barias, Susan, et al. Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 18, 2008 Point K Pick
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Pathfinder Funder Edition: A Practical Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Pathfinder is a practical guide to the advocacy evaluation process. This edition guides funders through the advocacy evaluation process from start to finish. Editions for advocates and evaluators are also available. Drawn from Innovation Network’s research and consulting experience, Pathfinder encourages the adoption of a “learning-focused evaluation” approach, which prioritizes using knowledge for improvement. Author: Innovation Network Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Nov 1, 2009 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.17 MB) -
Philanthropic Freedom: A Pilot Study Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity (CGP) is pleased to announce the publication of Philanthropic Freedom: A Pilot Study, the first time that the ease of giving has been fully measured and compared across 13 countries. The pilot study and each of the detailed country reports can be downloaded for free from www.Hudson.org/PhilanthropicFreedom.
Author: Hudson Institute Center for Global Prosperity Type: Research & Reports Date: Mar 28, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.31 MB) -
Philanthropy and Mistakes: An Untapped Resource This article discusses how foundations and their nonprofit partners might think about failure and share their hard-learned lessons. The authors first distinguish among different types of mistakes and how they relate to specific types of foundation investments. The authors then discusses three examples that represent different types of mistakes that foundations and their nonprofit partners make. Finally, the authors offer lessons to foundations about adapting, learning, and sharing in the face of failure.
Author: Robert Giloth and Susan Gewirtz Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (520.58 KB) -
Portfolio Evaluation vs. Grant Evaluation In this webinar Johanna Morariu and Ehren Reed discuss four levels of evaluation: grant-level, portfolio-level, foundation-level, and issue-level. The presentation addresses the pros and cons of these four levels of evaluation, and when one level may be more appropriate than another. Also included are considerations for right-sizing your evaluation approach—design, data collection, analysis, and reporting differences between grant and portfolio evaluations.Author: Johanna Morariu and Ehren Reed Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Feb 22, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Pros and Cons of Evaluation A solid two-page overview of why foundations should get involved with evaluation presented in a straightforward Pro vs. Con fashion. Author: Janet Carter Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Jan 1, 2003 Be the first to review this resource! Download (57.57 KB) -
Room for Improvement: Foundations' Support of Nonprofit Performance Assessment Amidst growing pressure for nonprofits to measure and assess their performance, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) finds that nonprofits sorely lack the support they need. CEP finds that 81 percent of the nonprofits surveyed believe that nonprofits should demonstrate the effectiveness of their work by using performance measures.
CEP also finds that:
» Nonprofits very much want to be able to understand their performance and are taking steps to do so. Nonprofits want more help in performance assessment efforts than they are currently receiving from their foundation funders.Author: Brock, Andrea; Buteau, Ellie; Herring, An-Li Type: Research & Reports Date: Sep 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.04 MB) -
Social Movements and Philanthropy: How Foundations Can Support Movement Building Building on research conducted for the California Endowment, this article describes five core movement-building elements and provides a framework for activities that foundations can support to foster movement building. Movement building presents unique challenges to foundations. Because movements, by definition, must be driven by the people who are most affected, foundations cannot determine the goals and timetables of a movement. Foundation investments in movements are just that – investments for the long term. Author: Barbara Masters, M.A., and Torie Osborn, M.B.A. Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: Oct 2, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Download (326.55 KB) -
Speaking for Themselves: Advocates' Perspectives on Evaluation "Speaking for Themselves: Advocates' Perspectives on Evaluation" will give you a better understanding of advocates' views on evaluation, the advocacy strategies and capacities they find effective, and current evaluation practices. Based on Innovation's Network's research, the report includes recommendations for advocates, funders, and evaluators. Both the research and publication were made possible by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Research & Reports Date: Aug 12, 2008 Point K Pick
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State of Evaluation in the Social Sector Measurement, evaluation, and learning are hotter than ever in the social sector. Foundations and nonprofits are focused on answering the question What difference are we making? And the field of evaluation has advanced in promising ways, developing meaningful evaluation approaches to better fit the latest philanthropic and nonprofit strategies. Author: Johanna Morariu and Will Fenn Type: Templates & Samples Date: Mar 21, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Tips for Evaluating Advocacy: A Checklist for Grantmaking Organizations Alliance for Justice produced this one-page checklist that has seven tips for grantmaking organizations on how to evaluate advocacy. Author: Alliance for Justice Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Jul 18, 2007 Be the first to review this resource! Download (34.37 KB) -
Transactions Transformations Translations: Metrics That Matter for Building, Scaling, and Funding Social Movements Metrics can help organizations articulate where they are going, what road they are taking, and what they expect to find along the way. They can help groups strike the right balance in the trade-offs above, allocating time and energy to be maximally effective. They can serve as a guide and tool for lifting up lessons for the field and for funders.
Author: Manuel Pastor, Jennifer Ito, Rachel Rosner Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2011
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