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The Emergence of Performance Measurement as a Complement to Evaluation Among U.S. Foundations
Author(s) -
Boris Elizabeth T.,
Kopczynski Winkler Mary
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
new directions for evaluation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.374
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1534-875X
pISSN - 1097-6736
DOI - 10.1002/ev.20047
Subject(s) - accountability , transparency (behavior) , performance measurement , theory of change , public relations , complement (music) , political science , public administration , sociology , management , economics , law , biochemistry , complementation , gene , phenotype , chemistry
American philanthropic foundations began to foster evaluation as a force for accountability and transparency in the 1980s, followed by a focus on effective grant‐making practices by the end of the 1990s. Yet few foundations implemented internal processes to measure their own performance, or invested in evaluating their grant‐making programs. The turn of this century saw the rise of venture philanthropy, as grants became investments and achieving impact became the stated goal. Associated catchwords include strategic grant making, focused grant making, logic models, theories of change, and metrics. Although there is a sense of momentum and commitment to charting impact among some of the largest foundations, the approaches they use are diverse and the language is idiosyncratic. Few foundations support capacity building at levels that allow nonprofits to monitor performance or evaluate results, and there seems to be little recognition that these are complementary and that both are required in high‐performing foundations and nonprofits. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association .