We are willing to take risks to address the issues that are important to us, and we recognize that the steps we take—or that our grantees take—may not always be the right ones. That’s why, once we’ve made a grant, we expect the grantee to measure progress and report on the results.
Annual Progress Assessments
Every year, we require our grantees to carefully track and report on their work in the field. Internally, we assess progress against goals through our annual update and planning process.
Measuring Progress Towards Impact
We aspire to measure the work in an ongoing way. Every three to five years we take stock of our overall strategy and the extent to which it accomplished our key goals.
This process is more in-depth and exhaustive than progress assessments, and we’re continually refining our approach. We take the following types of steps:
We commission third-party evaluations that provide in-depth findings on the effectiveness of the work. In some cases, we evaluate specific grants; in other cases, we may review entire programs.
We turn to outside advisors and experts to help us examine our efforts and give us honest counsel.
We reach out to the people we intend to serve—our ultimate beneficiaries—to make sure that our investments are meeting their needs.
Based on this review, we consider whether we need to make adjustments or even change course.
Examples:
Tracking Progress in Agricultural Development - Global Development ProgramOur Agricultural Development initiative works to provide small farmers—most of whom live on less than $1 a day—with tools and opportunities to overcome hunger and poverty. We set clear goals and carefully monitor the impact our work is having, and we’re looking at new ways to share our progress and lessons more widely with the public. To do this, we’re following six grants that were all announced together in early 2008 and represent work across the initiative.
Read the Agricultural Development progress reports.
Learn more about our work in Agricultural Development.
Sound Families Initiative - United States Program
The Sound Families Initiative transformed the lives of thousands of people, but family homelessness remains a pressing problem. Evaluations show that more than two-thirds of the families served successfully left the Sound Families program for permanent housing. But the overall number of homeless families in the Puget Sound region has not decreased. Given what we’ve learned, we’re now exploring some new approaches.
Read the Sound Families study.
Learn about our work in Housing & Homelessness.
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