A new white paper from Credit Suisse Private
Banking emphasises the need for philanthropists to embrace
evaluation that is “super concrete and specific” in order to be
effective donors.

“Strategic Philanthropy: Guide to Evaluation”
says learning remains the core focus of evaluation, which may help
make the grantee’s services to become more efficient and the
donor’s grants programme more effective.

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Evaluation also serves an important function
for grantees, notes the white paper. This is because nonprofit
bodies receive accountability pressure from stakeholders across
their organisation’s foundations, government partners, donors,
staff and programme beneficiaries.

Therefore, an evaluation process can allow
grantees to benchmark against their peers, contribute best
practices and expertise to their sector, and improve their own
management practices.

According to Jodi Nelson, director of impact
planning & improvement at The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, what is often missing from an evaluation discussion is
the purpose.

Nelson says: “Evaluation or measurement should
feed into decision making. What is the decision to be made? Often
you just need to know if you wish to give again. So a donor should
decide what is important.”

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Key takeaways on evaluation from the report
include:

  • Be selective about what to measure
  • Collaborate with other funders to create and / or take
    advantage of greater leverage
  • If measurement evaluation is important to you, then fund
    it
  • Use and share the results

Nelson adds: “The most important thing is not
evaluation but planning. The truism for most evaluators is that the
first several months is often spent trying to figure out what a
grant is trying to do in first place. If you don’t get super
concrete and specific about what change you want then it will be
difficult to conduct a formal evaluation. All parties should share
a common understanding about the work, which will make it easier to
see what happens.”