Every five years, each program of the Hewlett Foundation undertakes an intensive “strategic refresh,” which includes evaluations of its past successes and failures as well as research on opportunities for greater impact. In 2017, as a part of the Environment Program’s process to review and refresh its Climate and Clean Energy strategy, it commissioned an in-depth evaluation of its previous five years of grantmaking.
The resulting qualitative assessment, conducted by policy and evaluation experts David Gardiner and Jim Wolf in 2017, explored a primary question: is philanthropy on the right path to supporting the deep decarbonization needed to keep the world from exceeding more than a 2-degree temperature rise?
The paper, finalized in fall 2017, helped Hewlett devise its next five-year strategic initiative on climate (2018-2023), as well as provided material for discussion with other foundations, interested experts and policy leaders on the future direction and emphasis of climate philanthropy.