What does nonprofit capacity strengthening mean and why is it important? How has it evolved and what are emerging trends in the field? As part of its Organizational Effectiveness (OE) strategy refresh, the Hewlett Foundation’s Effective Philanthropy Group set out to answer these questions and better understand the current field of nonprofit capacity strengthening. Since…

Cliquez ici pour lire en français. In 2016, the Hewlett Foundation launched a sub-strategy to support a vibrant civil society sector in Africa that could capably and positively influence the family planning and reproductive health policies and funding decisions of national governments and international donors. The strategy sought to address several constraints in prevailing sexual…

Click here to read in English.  En 2016, la Fondation Hewlett a lancé une sous-stratégie visant à soutenir un secteur de la société civile dynamique en Afrique, capable d’influencer de manière captivante et positive les politiques de planification familiale et de santé reproductive et les décisions de financement des gouvernements nationaux et des donateurs internationaux.…

For almost two decades, the Hewlett Foundation has partnered with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to survey our grantees so we can learn from their feedback and continue to improve our grantmaking practices. These surveys of grantee perceptions — answered anonymously to ensure candor and benchmarked against our past performance, as well as our…

What is powerful teaching and learning in arts education—and how do you know it’s happening? Arts educators and researchers know these questions can be curiously difficult to answer. Part of the reason they’re difficult is because arts education takes place in a variety of learning environments (in school, after school, out of school, summer camps,…

There’s no denying the increasing salience of cybersecurity issues. This year alone has seen revelations about the SolarWinds hack, as well as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and the recent changes announced by Apple intended to protect children. Each has serious implications across a host of domains, from national security to business and the broader…

In anticipation of the release of our refreshed strategy in the coming weeks, we are excited to share the comprehensive evaluation of our International Reproductive Health (IRH) grantmaking from 2014–2020 (full report available here). We kicked off our evaluation and strategy refresh process last year, centering our guiding principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion; collaboration…

Earlier this year, the Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program commissioned Informing Change and Open Mind Consulting to undertake a study of the program’s intermediary partners—a group of nonprofit organizations who receive large grants from the Hewlett Foundation to both provide technical assistance for the San Francisco Bay Area arts sector and to “re-grant” the foundation’s…

Guided by our commitment to outcome-focused philanthropy, we take stock every five or so years of what happened over the previous strategy cycle, how the current landscape looks—and how it is changing—to learn, adapt, and respond to this new context in a meaningful way. Kicking off a strategy refresh during a global pandemic presents opportunities, constraints,…

In 2015, the Hewlett Foundation launched its first strategy on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). The goal of that strategy was to support women in achieving greater agency, opportunities, and control over resources. To do so, we focused on three areas of grantmaking: data, research, and advocacy. We worked under the premise that improved data, macro-level…