In this post, the Evaluation & Learning team at the Packard Foundation wanted to share some basics about learning questions: What are they? How should they be crafted? How can you make sure they are useful? At the Foundation, grant makers write learning questions about their grantmaking strategies. These questions are a critical opportunity for…

Capacity building is notoriously tricky to evaluate. Here in the Packard Foundation’s Organizational Effectiveness (OE) team we evaluate our work several ways, and we are always trying to improve so we can increase our impact.  This post provides a brief overview of our monitoring, evaluation, and learning approach over the last three years. We wanted…

Despite the protests of generations of economists, recent neurological and psychological research shows that human decisions come from our heart, not from our head. In small decisions, like which jam to buy, and large ones, like whom to marry, we are more often swayed by our psycho-social circuitry than by rational thought. For social changemakers,…

Early in my career I was working in Kampala, Uganda on a development project. One day I walked past a little girl, about age 3 or 4, sitting cross-legged on the street in tattered clothes under the hot sun, with her hand out for money, eyes closed, not moving an inch. A similar-looking slightly older…

Hi everyone. This is an exciting announcement for nonprofits and funders interested in building the practice of listening to the people you seek to help. If you are a Packard Foundation grantee who is interested in this support, please get in touch with your program officer soon! What is Listen for Good? Listen for Good…