Giving Compass' Take:

• The Center for Effective Philanthropy provides some insights for foundations on how to learn more effectively and share their knowledge with the public openly. 

• How can organizations focus more on grantee and stakeholder engagement? In what ways will nonprofits evolve, becoming more transparent and comfortable with their own shortcomings?

• Read more about sharing what works and the state of foundation practice.

The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s new report Understanding & Sharing What Works explores, from the vantage point of the foundation CEO, how foundations go about assessing their efforts, how they use this knowledge to make decisions, and how they share what they’ve learned in formal and informal ways with a variety of stakeholders. As I considered this report, I found three findings to be of particular interest, and a few key lessons for the field.

Three Observations:

  1. Some widespread learning practices aren’t generating useful insight, and some practices that show promise aren’t yet widespread.
  2. Foundation sharing often falls short of intentions.
  3. Funders pay close attention to the lessons of their peers, but they might not be getting (or sharing) the most important information.

Read the full article about learning better and sharing more by Yvonne Belanger at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.