The Insider's Guide to Grantmaking: How Foundations Find, Fund, and Manage Effective Programs

Continuation and Evaluation

Two of the foregoing twelve points deserve special emphasis. One of the most common errors committed by program officers reviewing proposals is to recommend funding without adequately considering two important elements: how a project, once initiated, can continue to operate without further foundation support, and how the project can be evaluated so as to yield important lessons to the foundation. While it is possible to defer these considerations, experience teaches that it is not wise. Both continuation efforts and evaluation plans prove more effective if they are part of program planning from the beginning. Hence, the time to seriously plan for these elements is while the proposal is still under consideration, not ...