Evaluating Program Impact
Discerning and communicating the impact of grantmaking and other programmatic contributions are essential to a foundation's mission as well as its commitment to stewardship, transparency, and accountability. A year after a committee of Rockefeller Brothers Fund trustees and staff was established to tackle this issue, their approach to impact assessment has been published.
In Evaluating Program Impact, the committee presents a set of principles to guide the Fund's impact assessment approach, defines terms for the purposes of RBF discussions, establishes several points for evaluation activities in the life cycle of a grantmaking program, and identifies opportunities to embed impact assessment in the Fund’s regular institutional processes.
As part of the report's release, a new section on Foundation Performance has been added to our website where all of our institution-wide and program-specific evaluations can be found.