Archive for November, 2011

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Data Point: Why Aren’t Foundation Boards More Involved in Assessing Performance?

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

One of the key findings from our recent performance assessment study, titled The State of Foundation Performance Assessment: A Survey of Foundation CEOs, is that 70 percent of CEOs want their board members to be more involved in assessment. This finding is consistent with our previous research – a desire for more board involvement is one area where we have seen little change in our surveys over the years. To try to understand why this gap remains, we asked CEOs what stands in the way of greater board involvement in assessing the foundation’s performance.

 

 

One hundred seventy-three CEOs of U.S. foundations with annual grantmaking of at least $5 million responded to our survey. The 70 percent who said they wanted greater board involvement in assessment were asked to consider whether any of the four hurdles listed above hamper their board’s involvement; CEOs could select any or all of these options, as well as present other reasons on their own. They could also answer that “Nothing hampers board’s involvement” in assessment efforts.

Almost 30 percent said an impediment to board involvement is a belief among CEOs that their boards do not have a deep enough understanding of the issue areas the foundation funds. More than 20 percent saw a misalignment between the board and staff about what is possible to understand about the foundation’s impact. Just under 20 percent said the board does not support allocating the necessary resources for useful assessment. Finally, 13 percent believed that the board isn’t more involved because it doesn’t understand the foundation’s goals or strategies.

Yet a third of CEOs who would like their board to be more involved in assessment reported that nothing in particular hampers their board from greater involvement in assessment.

The most common barriers CEOs saw to board involvement in assessment seem to be easily addressable. If boards and CEOs work to make overcoming these hurdles a priority, perhaps we will begin to see more CEO satisfaction with the involvement of their boards in assessment.

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To read about current foundation CEOs’ attitudes toward assessment and what foundations are doing to understand their performance, see the report, The State of Foundation Performance Assessment: A Survey of Foundation CEOs written by Ellie Buteau, Ph.D. and Phil Buchanan and published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

Ellie Buteau is Vice President – Research at the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

 

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Posted in Assessing Performance, Data Point, Optimizing Governance | 1 Comment »

Data Point: How Do Program Staff Decide What Assistance to Provide Beyond the Grant?

Friday, November 18th, 2011

CEOs and program staff believe that providing assistance beyond the grant is important both for the achievement of their goals and those of their grantees. Yet few know whether the assistance they provide to those grantees is proving helpful. In that context, the small proportion who conduct a formal needs assessment to determine what type of assistance to provide grantees is surprising – only three percent of program staff report always doing so.

Our report More than Money: Making a Difference Beyond the Grant explored which factors program staff consider when making decisions about what assistance to provide to grantees. We asked program officers at foundations with $100 million or more in assets to rate on a scale of 1 (Not a significant consideration) to 7 (Significant consideration) the extent to which they considered fourteen different factors when deciding what type(s) of assistance beyond the grant check to provide to a grantee.

With data from 103 respondents, we learned that the number one factor in decisions about what type of nonmonetary assistance to give is a request from the grantee for a specific type of aid. Program staff members also give significant consideration to their confidence that a grantee will make the most of the assistance being provided. Their own perception of what grantees need factored third in this list – 63 percent say this is an important consideration.

Near the other end of the spectrum, relatively few program officers factored in information about assistance that the grantee is already receiving from other funders, the length of time they had been funding a grantee, the size of grant they provided, or the budget of the grantee organization receiving the assistance.

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What are the attitudes and behaviors related to providing assistance beyond the grant at large foundations? For a fuller exploration of nonmonetary assistance, see the report More Than Money: Making a Difference with Assistance Beyond the Grant written by Ellie Buteau, Ph.D., Phil Buchanan, Cassie Bolanos, Andrea Brock, and Kelly Chang.

Ellie Buteau is Vice President – Research at the Center for Effective Philanthropy

 

 

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Evaluation Roundtable Study Highlights the Role of the CEO in Evaluation

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

A report written by Elizabeth Heid Thompson and Patricia Patrizi (and currently available on the CEP website) explores the extent to which foundations evaluate the results of their work. An examination of 31 foundations that have demonstrated a commitment to evaluation over time highlights several key facts.

According to the report, published for the Evaluation Roundtable, funding to support evaluative activities has decreased despite an increase in the demand for the information those activities produce. The number of foundation staff devoted to these activities has also declined in recent years.

Much of the current investment in evaluation is focused on performance metrics, often administrative metrics, rather than on the measurement of the strategy behind the work or on the implementation process. In fact, many evaluation leaders raised the following concerns about the metrics used:

  • That the metrics they were tracking did not adequately align with their strategies;
  • That their investments did not make a difference in moving the needle; and
  • That metrics chosen often reflect goals too distant to inform the way a strategy is implemented.

The good news discovered in this research, which took place in 2009, was about the role of foundation CEOs in the evaluation process. They report that when the evaluation unit reports to the CEO, more financial resources will be provided, the evaluations will be more widely distributed and more attention will be paid to the findings.

 

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Data Point: Strategy Implementation Challenges

Friday, November 11th, 2011

Much of the talk about strategy in philanthropy focuses on its development. Less frequently discussed is implementation. But, as former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President Steven A. Schroeder contends, good strategy is useless if it isn’t implemented well.  “Execution trumps strategy,” he argues.

So what gets in the way of good implementation?

In a survey CEP conducted about strategy at foundations, we asked program staff about the extent to which they believe they have the necessary resources, skills, and authority to implement their strategies.

The above data represents responses from 89 program staff members at private foundations with $100 million or more in assets, who were asked to rate on a scale of 1 (“Strongly disagree”) to 7 (“Strongly agree”) the extent to which they agree with the statements listed in the chart. The percentages reflect ratings on the positive end of the spectrum, any answer of 5-7 on the 1-7 scale.

More than one-third of program staff members report not having adequate resources – monetary and nonmonetary (time and staff) – to implement their strategies. While having enough resources is critical to carrying out a foundation’s strategy, foundation staff also need to have the necessary expertise and skills, coupled with adequate authority, to implement that strategy. Nearly 90 percent of the program staff surveyed believe they do have the necessary skills and expertise. However, more than one-third do not believe they have adequate authority to successfully implement their strategies.

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What separates more strategic foundation leaders from less strategic ones? To read CEP research that explores the state of strategy at private foundations and identifies behaviors and practices common to more strategic leaders, see the report Essentials of Foundation Strategy written by Ellie Buteau, Ph.D., Phil Buchanan, and Andrea Brock.

Ellie Buteau is Vice President – Research at the Center for Effective Philanthropy

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Podcast Interview Explores Findings in CEP’s Recent State of Foundation Performance Assessment Report

Monday, November 7th, 2011

A podcast interview with CEP President Phil Buchanan provides a timely take on the state of foundation assessment. The interview is conducted by Larry Blumenthal and Bill Silberg for Talking Philanthropy, a Foundation Center service. The conversation, available directly here, is just over 15 minutes long and covers a wide range of questions.

It takes off from CEP research recently published in the report The State of Performance Assessment: A Survey of Foundation CEOs, which presented the following key findings:

  • CEOs place great importance on assessing their foundations’ effectiveness;
  • Foundations appear to be using a broader range of information to assess their financial, operations, and programmatic performance than a decade ago; and
  • Board involvement in assessment remains a challenge.

The conversation examines the findings and charts the changes since CEP’s earlier research on the subject almost a decade ago, putting the efforts to find effective ways to assess performance both in the long-range history of modern philanthropy and in the more immediate context of a decade of significant change in culture and practice.

 

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