The importance of having goals and strategies in philanthropy has been getting a lot of attention of late. But goals and strategies alone are not enough. Once a foundation decides on a goal and develops a strategy for achieving it, the next order of business is to implement that strategy and to monitor progress toward the goals. While foundations tend to spend a good deal of time (and often a good deal of money) developing their strategic plans, implementation often gets short shrift.

One key requirement for successful implementation of a strategy is that it receives the full attention of the CEO and the board.

All too often, there seems to be an assumption that, once the foundation’s goals and strategies have been agreed to, implementation is largely a mechanical process that can be left to program staff without much real discussion or follow-up.

Indeed, board meetings often focus primarily on “new” business, with little time for discussion of ongoing programs. This tells the staff that program implementation is not really valued. The staff needs to know that the foundation’s leadership truly cares about effective implementation.

Monitor to stay on track

Closely related to effective implementation is the need for careful monitoring, both of individual grants and programs and of the strategy as whole. Are the grants meeting their specific objectives, and if not, is there anything the foundation can do to help get them back on track? Likewise, are the intermediate benchmarks for the strategy as a whole being met, and if not, are there any adjustments that the foundation needs to make—either to the strategy itself or to its timeframe—in order to achieve the desired goals? Foundations frequently rely on reports from the grantees themselves to monitor the progress of individual grants, but use existing data sources (such as government statistics) and independent evaluators to assess the progress of their overall strategy.

Be clear about the purpose of evaluation

Evaluations vary greatly in terms of their scope, rigor, and cost. They may include everything from an informal qualitative self-evaluation carried out by the grantee to a randomized clinical trial conducted by an experienced independent evaluation researcher. In general, the more rigorous and credible the evaluation, the greater the cost and the greater the level of effort required. A foundation should think carefully about why it wants to evaluate a particular program before deciding on what kind of evaluation to support at the beginning of an initiative, not as an afterthought.

Read the full article about going beyond goals and strategies by Stephen L. Isaacs and Paul S. Jellinek at Grantmakers In Health.