There is much pressure today on funders -- from their boards -- and on nonprofits -- from their funders -- to demonstrate the impact of the programs and organizations in which foundations are investing. However, many evaluations provide underwhelming or poor-fit information back to funders and non-profits alike.  When we do not know whether our funded programs are truly having impacts, and when we do not know how to improve over time, we risk perpetuating the status quo – a status quo that is inherently inequitable.    How can funders, nonprofits and evaluators collaborate to nurture evaluation designs that support learning and improvement as well as high-quality evidence and accountability?  Rather than using evaluation results as a referendum on whether the investment was of value or not, how can the paradigm be shifted to: what did we learn about how we can improve our impact?   The session brings together a funder, two unique nonprofits, and a university-based evaluator to share their journeys toward more collaborative, accurate and ultimately equitable evaluation results.   Together, panelists will share what others can do to harness the power of this triad (funder-program developer-evaluator) to move towards evaluation partnerships that emphasize learning, impact and improvement for all parties involved.

Panelists:

• Sarah Cotton Nelson, Social Impact Leader & Strategy Consultant
• Lenny Krasnow, President, M.B. & Edna Zale Foundation
• Gabrielle Kurlander, CEO, All Stars Project, Inc.
• Elizabeth Whattley, President & CEO, Forest Forward
• Dr. Annie Wright, Executive Director, Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE), Southern Methodist University