community pay attention to in 2023? The Positive Changes Journal editors asked these questions to the participants of the Donors Forum, a association of major donor organizations that systematically engage in charitable activities and whose work is aimed at improving the transparency of foundations and non-profit organizations.
Irina Efremova-Garth
First Deputy Director of the Donors Forum
Tatiana Pechegina
Journalist
THE TRENDS OF 2022
The contemporary society is experiencing a transformation of the social sphere in recent years, as more and more people are talking about social impact, qualitative societal changes and effective implementation of relevant projects and programs.
2022 has shown that evaluation is a very useful instrument with high potential. Donors currently see it as a tool enabling them to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the project activities being supported or independently implemented. At the same time, most already have an understanding that evaluation is primarily a source of information for further strategy development: deciding whether to continue or stop project activities, adjusting to the changes in the environment, managing the sustainability of existing positive changes and the possibility of replicating the technologies that have successfully passed the piloting stage.
The number of donors who are able to describe expected program results in measurable and specific terms, with a specific timeframe, is steadily growing. Another qualitative change is the practice of developing a chain of results: from immediate to long-term, which makes it possible to track the sequence of positive changes that occur in the external environment thanks to that donor’s support.
A hybrid approach to the evaluation process is becoming increasingly common, with outside experts participating in the methodology development, data analysis and providing recommendations, leaving it up to the client to collect information, interpret data, present the results to colleagues, and manage their implementation. Previously, external specialists were mainly engaged for the full cycle.
As for the use of evaluation results by donors, these are most often aimed at improving the effectiveness of program activities. They are used less often to revise program goals or activities set forth in program portfolios. The most dramatic leap of the past few years is related to the use of evaluation results to refine strategic priorities. Today it is used for this purpose by the overwhelming majority of large donor organizations; that is, it becomes a tool not just for day-to-day steering, but also for strategic management of charitable activities and social investment.
Another trend that took shape during 2022 was the donors’ focus on evaluating the institutional development of nonprofits. Increasingly they are willing to invest in building and developing the organizational capacity of the nonprofits rather than merely in project activities, since it is obvious that a weak organization is not in the position to do strong projects. But donors have also started to pay attention to the organizational maturity of prospective partners and grantees from non-profit organizations when it comes to financing projects. It is extremely important to see how the strategic planning and operations management processes, fundraising, external and internal communications, human resource management and development are built up. Evaluation can be carried out by the donor directly, by third-party experts hired by the donor, or by the actual non-profit organization applying for funding. This not only contributes to the development of an evaluation culture in the world of nonprofits, but also helps the organizations to identify priorities of their organizational development.
It is important to note that many organizations still mistakenly consider the social effect of their programs to be synonymous with the evaluation of social results. These concepts are certainly interrelated. Social effect is the change in the community and the quality of life of the beneficiaries that can occur thanks to the achievement of planned social outcomes. In this regard, it is particularly important to be able to decompose the goals of charitable initiatives from the strategic realm to the project detail. Another important feature of social impact evaluation is the ability to attribute changes to the program. Unfortunately, only a few organizations are actually using the data collection methodology that can convincingly prove this.
The number of donors who are able to describe expected program results in measurable and specific terms, with a specific timeframe, is steadily growing. Another qualitative change is the practice of developing a chain of results.
UPDATING THE POLICY STATEMENT ON DEVELOPING THE EVALUATION CULTURE
As a result of the trends that emerged in 2022, as well as the challenges faced by the donor community that require an immediate response, we have updated our Policy Statement on Developing the Evaluation Culture in the Donor Community. This is a document developed and adopted by the members of the Donors Forum in 2015, the International Year of Evaluation, when it was the subject of an annual conference and the first study in Russia on its place and role in foundations was conducted. This role is great, given that for donor organizations evaluation is a continuous process of gaining new knowledge about ongoing programs and projects and an opportunity to improve their charitable activities and social investment.
The Policy Statement reflects the donors’ efforts to build and promote an evaluation culture among themselves and the organizations they support. In just a few years, evaluation has gone from being a one-time, isolated initiative to a management tool, not just for individual programs and projects, but for the entire portfolio.
The donors’ focus on evaluating the institutional development of nonprofits is growing. Increasingly they are willing to invest in building and developing the organizational capacity of the nonprofits.
In the time since the document was adopted, evaluation has ceased to be perceived as just a “check”, and has become an integral element of project design. The employees’ expertise level has grown significantly, and new growth areas have emerged. Based on the importance of building and promoting an evaluation culture and the importance
