|
 Press Release: WhatWorks Foundation Effectiveness Toolkit
|
Research-Based
|
Tangible
|
Implementation-
Focused
|
Practical
|
Resource
Sensitive
|
Custom-Tailored
|
Social Sector Demands Tools to Quantify Programmatic Success. The Center for What Works Delivers with the Launch of its Foundation Effectiveness Toolkit.
Chicago, IL...Meeting new demands and opportunities facing the social sector, the Center for What Works launches its Foundation Effectiveness Toolkit, a research-based and resource-sensitive toolkit that improves foundation staff’s understanding and practice of outcome measurement.
In today’s economy, everyone is strapped for cash. The social sector feels this pinch acutely. Limited resources have increasingly fueled a sector-wide shift towards strategic funding and with it an increasing demand on both funders and nonprofits to measure and report the results of their activities. Presenting a real opportunity to the sector, these changes necessitate increased cooperation between the two while enabling both to better do what they set out to do in the first place, to better meet their missions. New, practical learning tools are needed to make improvements possible both for foundations and nonprofits. Addressing the pressing needs facing foundations, The Center for WhatWorks Foundation Effectiveness Toolkit meets this demand.
Paula Hickman, Executive Director for the Community Foundation of North Louisiana, an early adopter, stated: “The Center for What Works is a strategic partner with the Foundation in our work to strengthen community through philanthropy. By helping our local nonprofits measure and report outcomes, The Center has laid the groundwork for increased community impact and improved donor engagement.”
The Center for What Works functions as a bridge between research and practice; the toolkit both incorporates extensive primary market research and actualizes well-regarded philanthropic research reports including those published by the Urban Institute, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and more. The toolkit content provides solutions to pressing concerns such as: Our goal is to selectively support nonprofits that will put our funds to the best and highest use. How do we systematically select grantees based on their likely impact? How do we ensure we are allocating our resources to programs that do the most good?
“WhatWorks spent the last six years listening to our members and keeping abreast of the needs in our sector. We have developed a product and service offering that, through recorded webinars, an action plan, and follow-up phone consultations meets people where they are and assists them at critical points of implementation,” Explained Debra Natenshon, CEO of the Center for What Works.
The Foundation Effectiveness Toolkit components include a series of four 30-minute webinars that are modular for flexibility, a tangible action plan, and two one-to-one phone consultations that facilitate implementation through personalization and accountability. This unique combination makes the Center for What Works toolkits poised to make a significant impact on the social sector.
Visit www.WhatWorks.org/Toolkit or email info@whatworks.org to receive additional information.
The Foundation Effectiveness Toolkit launches simultaneously with the Nonprofit Effectiveness Toolkit, in an effort to ensure that foundations and nonprofits can both increase their measurement and reporting capabilities and improve their results to their target clients. The two toolkits create a common language around defining and achieving success.
About the Center for What Works.
WhatWorks is a nonprofit dedicated to building performance measurement capacity and developing a common language for the social sector to benchmark results, learn and improve. We are a research-based nonprofit and have extensively partnered with the Urban Institute, with the goal of providing the first sector-wide frameworks for nonprofit program outcomes and indicators for success. Building upon our roots in research, we also have extensive practical expertise. Our goal is to put our practical expertise to best use by providing the social sector with tools that are easily implemented, resource sensitive and meet the sector’s specific needs.
Join our online community for updates! Click here to join.
|
