Fuel for the Field

In Israel with a small visiting committee on Evaluation and Performance Management. We have met with nonprofits large and small, philanthropy – Israeli and US-based, corporations and banks, and the people and organizations that measure nonprofit performance. A lot of philanthropy here has historically been US-based, but because of more recent economic growth, there is a growing number of Israeli philanthropists, and different patterns of giving may emerge.

Evaluation issues seem familiar: concern about the cost and value of measurement; uncertainty about what to measure and how. Still there is burgeoning interest in it especially from larger foundations, some in the business community; and most especially from the nonprofits themselves who are eager to understand how to use measurement to improve their work, and maximize their impact.

One notable difference is that some elements of the US government – notably the Department of Education, and the White House Office of Social Innovation (and the Social Innovation Fund) are taking more of an interest in supporting evidence-based practices and evaluation. So far, fewer clear signs of that interest from the government here.

Met a big group of environmental organizations – impressive coordination and advocacy work that culminated a few years ago in a government mandate to include environmentalists on local planning bodies and a clean air law, among other changes.

There are several initiatives – including some social enterprise — to bring people with high rates of unemployment into the workforce. As in the US, not much capital available here for nonprofits trying to start social enterprise, but growing interest in learning and trying to do more.