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• Evaluation Policy - The Board of Trustees of BCM formed the evaluation and research (E&R) function in 1997 as a means to assess the effects of BCM Grantmaking relatively independent of internal grant administration. Both Trustees and Management believe that understanding the effects of individual and clusters of grants is important for planning and stewardship purposes.
  
  
• E&R Philosophy/Approach to Practice - E&R serves the Board of Trustees through Senior Management, and works closely with Program Directors (PDs). A natural tension, however, exists between program administrators (responsible for managing grants and day-to-day grantee relations) and E&R (responsible for tracking, documenting, and analyzing results of grantmaking and enterprise efforts). Since some portion of the success of E&R efforts depends on effective working partnerships with Program Directors, communication and transparency between PDs and E&R personnel are essential. Thus, in most cases, E&R activities are intentionally designed and implemented to be appropriately transparent, as well as meaningfully engaging of, and relevant for, BCM Program Directors. Practical, creative, and innovative in approach, E&R efforts are conceptually grounded in a foundation effectiveness framework.
  
  
• Foundation Effectiveness - There has been much focus on philanthropic effectiveness in recent years, creating a significant challenge to measurement, evaluation, and research professionals world-wide. Because field consensus has yet to be reached on a generalizable foundation effectiveness framework (let alone definitions and measures), many foundations have designed their own. BCM designed and adopted an Impact Assessment model intended to represent, thus capture, the totality of its stewardship; from Grantmaking Strategy, to Leveraging and Public Policy efforts, and also Foundation Operations. A set of concept maps were designed to represent the BCM Grantmaking strategy, which are used for communication, tracking, decision-making, priority identification, and results expectation. E&R directs efforts to understand the effects of BCM resource allocation in the New Orleans community, thus, is responsible for systematically collecting, tracking, analyzing, and reporting effectiveness-related data.
  
  
• Grantee Effectiveness - Understanding what helps Grantee Organizations effectively achieve the intent of their BCM grant award is not only an important component of understanding foundation effectiveness; it is a central focus of BCM day-to-day efforts. E&R studies grantee effectiveness as a part of the larger framework of foundation effectiveness; to date, E&R contributions to grantee effectiveness have most often occurred through working with BCM Program Directors. Grant evaluation activities are required for each separate grant issued by BCM. The level of effort represented in each grant evaluation is directly proportional to the grant amount, such that smaller grants tend to plan simpler, easy to report evaluation activities; whereas, larger grants typically involve more complex and multi-layered evaluation designs. In parallel, E&R involvement at an individual grant level depends on grant size. For example, E&R provides technical and conceptual consultation to Program Directors (PDs) on individual grant performance plans, and, in concert with Program Directors (PDs), may also participate in grant performance planning and design with Grantees.

Selected Resources for Internal Evaluation Offices

BOOKS

Rethinking Philanthropic Effectiveness: Lessons From an International Network of Foundations Experts (2005)
Eilinghoff, Dirk (Ed.)

High Impact Internal Evaluation (2000)
Sonnichsen, Richard C.
Sage Publishers, Inc.

Can Governments Learn: Comparative Perspectives on Evaluation & Organizational Learning (1994)
Leeuw, Frans L.; Rist, Ray; Sonnichsen, Richard (Eds.)
Transaction Publishers

Internal Evaluation: Building Organizations From Within (1991)
Love, Arnold J.
Sage Publishers, Inc.
Applied Social Science Research Methods Series (Volume 24)

Action-Oriented Evaluation in Organizations (1992)
Hudson, Joe; Mayne, John; Thomlison, Ray (Eds.)
Wall & Emerson, Inc.

Consulting on the Inside: An Internal Consultant's Guide to Living and Working Inside Organizations (2000)
Scott, Beverly
ASTD Press

Organizational Consulting: How to be an Effective Internal Change Agent (2003)
Weiss, Alan
John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Evaluation in Organizations: A Systematic Approach to Enhancing Learning, Performance, and Change (2001)
Russ-Eft, Darlene; Preskill, Hallie
Perseus Publishing

PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS

Evaluation & Program Planning
American Journal of Evaluation
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation
New Directions for Evaluation
Harvard Business Review
Stanford Social Innovation Review

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

American Evaluation Association (AEA)

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)

Canadian Evaluation Society (CES)

American Educational Research Association (AERA)

Southeast Evaluation Association (SEA)