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Growing Smarter: Achieving Sustainability in Emerging Community Foundations

Eva Nico, Rebecca Graves, Tracy Foster, Fay Hanleybrown
It's a striking paradox: as community foundations grow their assets, their sustainability is often threatened. This report, written by FSG Social Impact Advisors and sponsored by The James Irvine Foundation, is based on research with growing and community foundations. Community foundations of virtually any size will find valuable information, case studies and economic models. An executive summary and discussion guide, included in the paper, are also available as separate files for easy distribution. A board presentation introduces core concepts of the report.
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Toward a New Approach to Product Development Partnership (PDP) Performance Measurement

Major corporations, philanthropic organizations, governments, and social sector organizations have joined forces to develop health products for neglected diseases. At the center of these multi-sector collaborations are innovative organizations, known as product development partnerships (PDPs). With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, FSG completed a comprehensive review of the state of performance measurement among PDPs and developed a working paper to establish a common approach to performance measurement among PDPs and donors.
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From Insight to Action: New Directions in Foundation Evaluation


Mark Kramer, Rebecca Graves, Jason Hirschhorn, and Leigh Fiske
After a year of research and nearly 100 interviews with foundation leaders and evaluation experts, FSG has released a report that identifies a fundamental transition in the way foundations use evaluation.  The study was funded by the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and conducted in collaboration with the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers.
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Measuring Innovation - Evaluation in the Field of Social Entrepreneurship

Mark Kramer
This FSG white paper, commissioned by the Skoll Foundation, reviews best practices for evaluating social entrepreneurship.
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The Nestlé Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility as Implemented in Latin America

Mark Kramer, Marc Pfitzer and Karin Jestin
This FSG report describes Nestlé's approach to corporate social responsibility through the lens of a new CSR framework by Harvard's Michael Porter and FSG's Mark Kramer that focuses on creating shared value for society and the corporation.
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The Evaluation Matrix

Mark Kramer
A 2003 article that deconstructs the multi-faceted discipline of evaluation.
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Benchmarking Philanthropy

John Kania
This article argues that benchmarking an organization's social impact against that of its peers is a powerful tool to justify activities.
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The Foundation Performance Dashboard - Vital Statistics for Social Impact

Mark Kramer and John Kania
A way for foundations to develop a clear, concise, cost-effective, and integrated picture of foundation performance.
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When Success is Only an Intermediate Goal

Kyle Peterson, Laura Loker and Matthew Clark
How Swiss-based Medicines for Malaria Ventures developed a new approach to performance measurement.
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The Evaluation of Capacity Building Grants - Key Learnings for a Successful Program

Rebecca Graves and Henry Culbreath
A review of FSG's work with the Maine Community Foundation to assess the effectiveness of its capacity building efforts.
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Allocating Resources in a Time of Scarcity

Mark Kramer and John Kania
This 2002 article argues that particularly in an environment of pressured investment returns, donors should maximize their impact, by focusing their giving on the areas of their highest social return.
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From Insight to Action: New Directions in Evaluation


Research Synopsis for Social Sector Funders
Mark Kramer and Marc Pfitzer
This is the European edition of our report highlighting the emerging approaches to evaluation that increase the effectiveness of social sector funders: foundations, corporate donors, government funded initiatives and their beneficiaries.
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