Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Grantee Cumulative Impact Survey reveal common approaches, achievements and challenges among grantees in its California, Deep South, Midwest, National, Southwest/U.S. – Mexico Border, and Washington Home State grantmaking regions. At the same time, the results demonstrate some divergence within and across regions, reflecting the context of their work.
The results of the survey delineate the impact of the work of the Foundation’s grantees in their communities, the impact of the Foundation’s grants on its grantees, and characteristics of the grantmaking regions. The impacts can be used to draw correlations between strategies, partnerships, impacts and policy successes, enabling the Foundation to identify indicators of success and to refine its support of grantees to increase the impact of their work and the
Foundation’s grantmaking. The survey findings suggest that Marguerite Casey Foundation can further amplify the impact of its grants by encouraging grantees to focus on:
- Organizational development
- Skills development in leadership development strategies
- Policy changes and/or civic empowerment
- Partnerships and networks that cross sectors and function at high levels
The information also points to a number of questions for the Foundation to explore further:
- Leadership Development: Does the Foundation want to track changes in how/if grantees approach leadership development over time?
- Professional Development: What is the nature of staff development that grantees undertake, including the process and goals (e.g., conferences, networking opportunities, salary increases)? What does it mean to engage staff in organizational decision making? Why are grantees not completing leadership succession plans? How can they be supported?
- Partners: How are partner organizations connected? What do new partners bring? What determines what type and scope of relationships are established? How can these relationships be supported and developed?
- Impact of Grants on Organizations: What leads to organizations adopting new strategies? How much new funding has been leveraged by grantees, how was it leveraged and from where?
- Policy Impacts: What policies are most salient in each region and in each issue area?
- Strategies: Using this data as a baseline for comparison to future data, is there a trajectory from direct services to organizing? How do the strategies relate to the context of each region?