In the newly-released issue of The Foundation Review, the article entitled “Investing in Community Change: An Evaluation of a Decade of Data-Driven Grantmaking” focuses on the joint evaluation by Success Measures and The Reinvestment Fund of the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation’s decade-long focus on neighborhood revitalization. The article, co-authored by Maggie Grieve (Success Measures), Lois Greco (Wells Fargo Regional Foundation), and Ira Goldstein (The Reinvestment Fund), specifically discusses the impact of the foundation’s grantmaking and related programs in low-income communities in eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.
The evaluation, which used a mixed-methods approach that included interviews, case studies, economic analysis, survey and administrative data, examined lessons from 140 grants totalling more than $41 million. Having engaged both Success Measures and The Reinvestment Fund as data and evaluation partners to support its grantees from the beginning of its initiatives, WFRF was able to sustain an approach that provided valuable data for its board, staff, grantees and partners. Grounded in this performance and outcome data, the foundation put the results to immediate use refining its strategic direction and programs, and in assessing the replicability of its efforts in other regions and foundations.