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…
In 2020—a year rocked by a racial reckoning and the inequities of the global pandemic—diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rose to the forefront of issues that were most of interest to funders. In a new study of how U.S. foundations find and use information about effective philanthropy, DEI emerged as the leading topic of interest…
The Hewlett Foundation began collecting information about the demographic makeup of its grantees in 2018 as part of our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Just as we collect and publish the demographics of our staff and board, we view the demographic data of our grantees as a critical input to help us understand…
The Hewlett Foundation is publicly releasing a new data platform that describes the racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of its U.S. grantees—a platform developed in partnership with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP). In this interview, Kevin Bolduc, Vice President of Assessment and Advisory Services, and Della Menhaj, Associate Manager of Assessment and Advisory Services,…
The Hewlett Foundation updates our grantmaking strategies every five years to facilitate ongoing learning and adaptation, consistent with our commitment to outcome-focused philanthropy. The foundation’s transparency, participation, and accountability (TPA) strategy reached the five-year mark in 2020 and we kicked off the strategy refresh in late 2020. We are now at the stage of making…