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Evaluation

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Learning through measurement and evaluation help us better support programs that improve education, boost entrepreneurship, and help Kansas City thrive.

Evaluation provides Foundation leadership and staff with rigorous evidence to support strategic learning and inform decision-making about grants and the programs we operate directly.

Our evaluation work is driven by three goals:

  1. Track and understand our progress in achieving strategic objectives.
  2. Create and share lessons learned along the way.
  3. Use evaluation results to increase our impact.

The Foundation’s evaluation framework spans all three levels at which the Foundation operates: grants, internally operated programs, and program-area strategies. While we use different measurement approaches for each of these levels, there is a consistent focus on establishing and tracking progress toward key outcomes.


Kauffman Education Fellowship Evaluation Report

May 2020 | Now in its second year, the Kauffman Education Fellowship is successfully graduating Fellows who are knowledgeable about education, equity, and advocacy. The Fellowship is developing a network of community leaders prepared to advance quality education in Kansas City.


March 9, 2020 | We believe in collecting and analyzing data and reflecting on the results can lead to important learnings that improve our work moving forward. This brief summarizes the five key themes from lessons developed in 2019.


September 5, 2019 | Kauffman Foundation summer intern Leann Caudill shares four recommendations on how to build a culture of learning inside a Foundation.


July 23, 2019 | At the Kauffman Foundation, we seek to pair internally operated programs and large grant portfolios with a third-party evaluation partner.


July 23, 2019 | The Foundation sees three primary purposes for grant reporting: to UNDERSTAND the results of a grant, to LEARN key lessons with grantees, and to SUPPORT the grantee in their work.


March 6, 2019 | The Kauffman Foundation developed a guide to help grant applicants build rigorous and specific metrics.


March 6, 2019 | Each year, the Kauffman Foundation gathers the lessons shared by our grantees and presents a summary of them in the Annual Learning Report. Here are the results of 2018’s learnings.


January 18, 2018 | The 2017 Annual Learning Report from the Kauffman Foundation synthesizes the key themes we see across the lessons that have been generated from grant reports, external evaluations and staff presentations to the Board of Trustees.


January 18, 2018 | The goal of the Kauffman Foundation’s KC Civic Nonprofit Effectiveness funding area is to strengthen nonprofits through services provided to them by quality intermediary organizations. These intermediaries provide services designed to build nonprofit capacity and efficiencies so that nonprofit organizations can, in turn, better serve community needs.


November 1, 2017 | The Kauffman Foundation Evaluation Reporting Guide outlines our recommendations for presenting evaluation findings in clear, accessible and actionable ways.


October 16, 2015 | The Evaluation Guide describes the Kauffman Foundation’s policies for measurement and evaluation.


February 22, 2017 | To ensure that the Kauffman Foundation’s evaluation and measurement work meets the highest standards, the Foundation has named an Evaluation Advisory Committee who provide strategic advice about program and grant evaluation practices.