The Ford Foundation commissioned Informing Change—in collaboration with Active Voice Lab—to conduct an evaluation covering five years of the JustFilms initiative (2017–2021) that seeks to take stock of JustFilms’ strategy over that time. During 2017–2021, JustFilms awarded $27.3 million to 187 films through 223 content grants, including six grants through fiscal sponsors.... Read more »

In 2022, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation (the Foundation) commissioned Informing Change to conduct a summative evaluation of its Cyber Initiative (the Initiative). The Foundation created the Initiative in 2014 ith the objective of establishing a cyber field of multidisciplinary experts with the necessary knowledge, expertise, and reach to... Read more »

In this 2022 youth impact survey report, we share findings, insights, and considerations drawn from a survey of members (ages 13–22) participating in programming at Best Buy Teen Tech Centers (TTCs) and Clubhouses: Where Technology Meets Imagination. All TTCs and Clubhouses are affiliates of The Clubhouse Network (TCN). Informing Change... Read more »

Informing Change has evaluated the Los Angeles Jewish Teen Initiative (LAJTI or the Initiative) since it began in 2015. This evaluation report, Findings from the LAJTI Evaluation – Years 6-8, covers the last three years of the Initiative, from Fall 2020 through Spring 2023, and draws primarily on qualitative data... Read more »

Grant application and reporting processes often define the exchange of information between funders and grantees. Yet, for applicants and grantees, they can be experienced as tiresome, funder-centric, a waste of time and money, and overly bureaucratic. Meanwhile, grantmakers say they don’t always read grant reports, and when they do read... Read more »

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation invited Informing Change to partner with them in the development of an updated Data Ethics Guidebook. In doing so, we considered the evolving ecosystem of values, players, and circumstances in which evaluation is now happening in philanthropy. While appreciating the insights evaluation work can... Read more »

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation invited Informing Change to partner with them in the development of an updated Data Ethics Guidebook. In doing so, we considered the evolving ecosystem of values, players, and circumstances in which evaluation is now happening in philanthropy. In addition to the Guidebook, we developed... Read more »

Eighty reproductive or birth justice organizations supported by Groundswell Fund or via one of its grantmaking partners reflected on their work, progress made, and challenges encountered in 2021. They described the headwinds and tailwinds they faced, the allies they worked with, and their strategies. Collectively, these organizations have programs in... Read more »

Managed by the San Francisco Foundation and Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Partnership for the Bay’s Future (PBF) is an innovative and collaborative effort of philanthropic, private, nonprofit, and public sectors using racial and economic equity as the guiding influence to ensure the Bay Area is a place where everyone... Read more »

During 2020-2021, we collaborated with Open Mind Consulting to undertake a study commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program to help the Foundation better understand what has been accomplished and who benefits from the funds and services provided by intermediary partners of the Program and how... Read more »

The Denver Boulder Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative (the Initiative) began in 2014 with a partnership between Rose Community Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation to fund grantees selected to be the drivers of change in the Jewish teen landscape through their teen-led programming and strong adult-teen relationships. The Initiative... Read more »

We, in partnership with Open Mind Consulting and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, researched seven organizations to learn about how they share, collaborate on, and distribute leadership. Looking through the lens of decision making, we discovered that even among this small sample, the ways of distributing power, authority, and responsibility are myriad.... Read more »

Youth Outside strives to ensure that the lived experiences of all youth are honored as part of the outdoor experience. In service of this goal, in 2012 Youth Outside began OEI as a development program to empower young adults (ages 18–24) from underrepresented communities to become outdoor leaders, and to... Read more »

There are dozens of organizational capacity assessment tools. How do you determine which one is right for your organization? We partnered with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Effective Philanthropy Group to scan the landscape of organizational capacity assessment tools and gather insights from organizational capacity professionals about the best... Read more »

Over the course of its seven-year investment in improving after-school and summer learning programs (also known as expanded learning programs) for California’s K–12 students, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation invested in three linked strategies: creating models of high quality summer learning programs, cultivating a statewide network of technical assistance... Read more »

This executive summary shares top level findings from our final evaluation report of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s seven-year investment in expanded learning. Using three linked strategies—creating models of high quality summer learning programs, cultivating a statewide network of technical assistance (TA) for expanded learning, and engaging stakeholders to champion expanded... Read more »

In this case study, we draw upon our evaluation findings from the Safety Net Analytics Program (SNAP) to explore how safety net healthcare organizations can successfully create and sustain data-driven cultures. The work of gaining staff buy-in—let alone training staff in different aspects of data analytics—building data infrastructure and using... Read more »

The Safety Net Analytics Program (SNAP), implemented by Center for Care Innovations and funded by California Health Care Foundation, was created to help safety net organizations develop a data-driven culture and to strengthen the people, processes and technology behind data analytics. SNAP engaged 20 grantee teams to grow and develop... Read more »

The team for Contra Costa Health System’s (CCHS) Safety Net Analytics Program (SNAP) had a clear goal in mind: use data to predict and address the needs of CCHS’s most high-utilizing, vulnerable patients. Meeting these high utilizers’ needs requires a range of providers to coordinate both their services and the... Read more »

The vast sea of data available to safety net healthcare providers is only helpful if staff can interpret and use that data. Enter dashboards, which enable data-sharing among staff—from frontline to administrative staff and across all departments and sites—in a consistent, visually accessible way. As one of the most-used strategies... Read more »

Expanded learning (i.e., after-school and summer learning) programs have immense potential to foster academic and social growth for students. To actualize this potential, a system of support in the form of technical assistance (TA) has emerged in California to help expanded learning providers sustain and improve their programs. Some expanded... Read more »

As California faces the challenges of an evolving healthcare landscape, there is an unprecedented need for a committed and adaptable network of leaders in the community health centers field. To meet this need and strengthen the next generation of community health center leaders, The Blue Shield of California Foundation partnered... Read more »

Funded by Blue Shield of California Foundation, the Clinic Leadership Institute’s New Executive Transitions (nEXt) program provides new community health center CEOs with knowledge, skills and networks to succeed in their positions. The year-long program consists of in-person program meetings, mentor/advisor relationships and ongoing informal networking. Informing Change’s evaluation of... Read more »

In 2013, the MacArthur Foundation engaged Informing Change to evaluate one component of its Digital Media and Learning (DML) Initiative—the DML Competition—which identifies innovators and invests in prototypes of games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds, social networks, digital badge platforms and more in support of connected learning. Informing Change assessed the Competition’s... Read more »

In 2014, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program engaged Informing Change in partnership with Olive Grove to assess the effectiveness of the Foundation’s approach to support regranting intermediaries. The Foundation works with these regranting intermediaries to target San Francisco Bay Area small arts organizations, individual artists and communities or arts disciplines... Read more »

In 2012, Blue Shield of California Foundation launched the Executive Excellence program (Ex2), the most recent addition to the suite of Clinic Leadership Institute programs. Administered by UCLA Anderson Executive Education, Ex2 offers a range of instruction and supports to catalyze leadership and effectiveness among executive teams in California’s community health... Read more »

From 2010 to 2014, Scaling What Works was a multi-year learning initiative of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) to expand the number of grantmakers and public sector funders who are working together to grow the impact of high-performing nonprofit organizations. Through the Initiative, GEO offered training, networking opportunities, and a host of... Read more »

Published in the Clinic Leadership Institute’s seventh year, this dashboard showcases how the program continued to develop individual leaders, strengthen sponsoring organizations and bolster California’s community health centers system so it will thrive for years to come. In the evaluation findings, highlighted by Informing Change in a data dashboard and short deck,... Read more »

As California faces the challenges of an evolving healthcare landscape and the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there is an unprecedented need for a committed and adaptable network of leaders in the community health centers field. To meet this need, Blue Shield of California Foundation has... Read more »

In January 2012, 13 community health centers throughout California received one-year “seed” funding and support to develop innovative ideas, support “out of the box” thinking and test new solutions to common problems in health care. The Center for Care Innovation and Blue Shield of California Foundation engaged Informing Change to... Read more »

On behalf of the Jim Joseph Foundation, Informing Change collaborated with Rosov Consulting to conduct a body of research around teen education programs, identifying leading efforts inside and outside of the Jewish world that are engaging young people in experiences that are relevant, meaningful and ongoing. Twenty-one programs were chosen... Read more »

For the past few years, healthcare administrators and providers have been getting ready for the Affordable Care Act by re-examining and making changes to their current systems. They are preparing for an influx of newly insured patients, attempting to position themselves as providers of choice within their communities and working... Read more »

The Blue Shield of California Foundation and the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco launched the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program to prepare emerging leaders to move into executive positions. But how do the learnings from a structured leadership program translate to the... Read more »

The Pipeline Project offers the 21st Century Fellows Program to managers of color working at LGBT human rights and advocacy organizations with the intention of retaining and advancing these fellows in the field. The year-long leadership program aims to: build fellows’ leadership skills through a Rockwood Leadership Institute curriculum, create... Read more »

The Blue Shield of California Foundation is partnering with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco to design and implement the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program. This intensive, 18-month program prepares emerging leaders to move into executive positions within five to eight years... Read more »

In 2006, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation began to support the After School Education and Safety Program (ASES)–funded expansion of after-school programs in California. The Foundation invested in the establishment of technical assistance (TA), workforce development, and leadership infrastructure to help build a sustainable system that provides better programmatic... Read more »

What does it really mean to treat evaluation study participants fairly, equitably and with the utmost respect? For foundation staff without deep research backgrounds, it is vital to understand whether evaluators are taking appropriate steps to protect the participants in their work. Does every study require an Institutional Review Board... Read more »

In 2008, The Blue Shield of California Foundation partnered with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco to address leadership needs in the community clinics field. They launched the Clinic Leadership Institute (CLI), an 18-month leadership program designed to prepare next generation leaders to... Read more »

Evaluation done well should be so much more than documenting the activities and outputs of a grant. To the extent possible, it should leave an organization with a fuller understanding of the process and impacts of its work. Good evaluation should expand an organization’s ability to reflect on its work... Read more »

This report offers lessons learned from the James Irvine Foundation’s Fund for Leadership Advancement Initiative. This summary is based on the full evaluation report, “Strengthening Nonprofit Leaders to Enhance Organizational Capacity.”

This report describes the findings and implications from a study of emerging leaders within the community clinics field in California. It looks at the degree to which their group of clinic staff are interested in and poised to become future CEOs, medical directors or other senior leaders in community clinics... Read more »

This report describes the findings and implications from a study of Medical Directors within California’s community clinics field. It looks at Medical director’s career pathways and their current job satisfaction, the most significant rewards and challenges of their leadership position, the extent to which they share leadership with others and... Read more »

This report describes the findings and implications from an assessment of CEOs within California’s community clinics field. It looks at CEO’s perspectives on their current position, career path and aspirations, job challenges and rewards and the types of support that are most important for them to be successful in their... Read more »

What kinds of actions taken now would ensure that community clinics have the leaders they need to meet the impending challenges of coming years? In 2008, two leading health care funders in California—the Blue Shield of California Foundation and the Community Clinics Initiative, a joint project of Tides and The... Read more »

Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson was an extraordinary political leader and public servant. With help from Informing Change, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation conceptualized and produced a new publication to document Senator Jackson’s legacy of leadership in public service. In The Nature of Leadership: Lessons from an Exemplary Statesman (July 2008), interviews with... Read more »

During Informing Change’s multi-year evaluation of the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI), we observed that CCI was particularly effective in extracting knowledge and lessons while the evaluation was underway. This made their grantmaking more responsive and strategic. In this article, we identify five tactics that CCI used to ensure that the... Read more »

The Kaiser Permanente Community Clinic Partnership (the Partnership) is a collaboration of Kaiser Permanente (KP) in California and the state’s system of community clinics. KP contracted with BTW informing change to examine the Partnership experience within KP,  the clinic networks and individual clinics. The evaluation focuses on the Partnership’s first phase of... Read more »

Informing Change’s evaluations often include structured experiences to help participants understand the process and what can be learned from it. In this article, Informing Change’s Director of Evaluation and Organizational Learning outlines key factors for successful learning communities and describes benefits of participation to funders. This article first appeared in LEARNING, the... Read more »

In 2005, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation initiated the Coaching and Philanthropy Project to assess the use of coaching within the nonprofit sector. Coaching is a powerful strategy for cultivating strong leadership and building effective organizations, and the Foundation sought to expand the use of coaching among nonprofits. Informing Change’s research... Read more »

Over the last four years, Informing Change has partnered with the Health Forward Foundation (HFF, formerly the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City) to build a framework for evaluating the Foundation’s three portfolios: Safety Net, Mental Health, and Healthy Communities. Our team worked closely with each portfolio to construct... Read more »