This paper is a distillation from a memo prepared for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Board of Trustees. It was presented for discussion and all recommendations were adopted by the board in November, 2013.
In November 2012’s Board Meeting, a question was raised about how much the Foundation should spend each year on evaluation.The question was prompted in part by a presentation made earlier, at the September Board Retreat, which laid out our plans to incorporate evaluation planning into the programs’ strategy development process and to be more systematic about using third-party evaluations. These changes, in turn, call upon us to articulate benchmarks for the expected costs of evaluating our grantmaking programs’ progress and outcomes.