The Elusive Quest for Impact: The Evolving Practice of Social-Impact Measurement

Trelstad, Brian

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199357543.003.0022

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Communicating the impact of foundations' interventions may help them to increase their perceived legitimacy in their communities, as well as to reconsider their role in the public sphere, which is increasingly challenged (Anheier & Leat, 2013;Reich, 2013). Moreover, the organizational value of having a measurement system is a key driver of knowledge sharing between foundations' staff, executives and board members (Trelstad, 2014).…”

Section: Social Impact Assessment In Foundations: Concepts Methods Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Are foundations assessing their impact? Concepts, methods and barriers to social impact assessment in Italian foundations

Ricciuti

Caló

2018

Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark

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Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is a mantra for nonprofit studies in recent years and for foundations in particular which are considered to be well-positioned to measure the impact of their grants. This paper aims to explore what foundations mean with impact, the ways they measure it and the barriers in performing evaluations. Its mixed method approach includes an extensive documentary analysis of 196 foundations, complemented by 10 in-depth interviews with informants of 13 foundations which use different methods of evaluation. From our analysis, the degree of foundations' disclosure on SIA is low, and no common meaning of social impact exists. Foundations prefer qualitative methods for data collection rather than quantitative ones. The reasons behind SIA are primarily based on internal considerations concerning foundations' legitimacy, and the lack of professional staff is a major barrier. The findings challenge foundations' accountability and knowledge sharing, fundamental to fostering peer dialogue and increasing participatory evaluations.

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Section: Social Impact Assessment In Foundations: Concepts Methods Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Are foundations assessing their impact? Concepts, methods and barriers to social impact assessment in Italian foundations

Ricciuti

Caló

2018

Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark

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“…Literatures report foundation evaluation and performance measurement evolving haphazardly (Dillman & Christie, 2017), foundations’ recognizing evaluation and learning as “real work,” but not translating this translating into efforts paying attention to grantees (Coffman and Beer, 2016, p. 40) and withholding information from their own evaluations (Nolan et al, 2019). Trelstad (2014) finds that having a measurement system is a key driver of knowledge sharing between foundations’ staff, executives, and board members; yet Anheier and Leat (2019) identify significant performance measurement challenges in foundations, providing ambiguity to assessing programs’ failures or successes. Alongside the optimism and promise within KS literatures, there is also a strong strand of uncertainty as to KS’s nature, extent, and outcomes within and among foundations.…”

Section: The Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buried Treasure? Local Foundations’ Knowledge Sharing in Jordan and Palestine

Harrow

Sola²

2022

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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Promotion and study of knowledge sharing among philanthropic foundations globally, led by western institutions and scholars, pays minimal attention to knowledge sharing undertaken by national and local foundations in non-western regions and countries. Yet such settings are often sites of extensive international (largely western-led), philanthropic investment, where interfoundation knowledge sharing may be especially valuable. This article reports research on knowledge sharing in 12 nationally based foundations, working locally in youth development in Jordan and Palestine (West Bank). Findings from case studies and interview data reveal a range of internal knowledge-sharing activities, linked to individual foundations’ program development and incorporating beneficiary perspectives. These developments contrast significantly with the lack of external knowledge sharing and the absence of invitations to share knowledge with international foundations, active in these countries. The implications of these findings for foundation philanthropy theory and practice, and for knowledge-sharing scholarship are considered and a continuing research agenda proposed.

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The Elusive Quest for Impact: The Evolving Practice of Social-Impact Measurement

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Are foundations assessing their impact? Concepts, methods and barriers to social impact assessment in Italian foundations

Are foundations assessing their impact? Concepts, methods and barriers to social impact assessment in Italian foundations

Buried Treasure? Local Foundations’ Knowledge Sharing in Jordan and Palestine

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