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Storytelling Souvenirs

Category: Perspective

Storytelling Souvenirs

What TCC Group’s Evaluation Team Brought Back from The American Evaluation Association’s Evaluation 2023 Conference 📖 Storytelling and Evaluation Storytelling in evaluation is a powerful way to describe the cause and effect of programs or initiatives. Walking your audience down the path of a programmatic story is an immersive tactic that will lead to a … Continued

Taking the Prize in Expanding Donor Interest

While more than $1 trillion in new money for philanthropy has been promised through the Giving Pledge, most of this money remains on the sidelines. Despite the urgency of local, national, and global social and economic challenges, would-be donors have no accessible, trusted, and reliable way to choose with confidence among the many charitable causes, … Continued

A Journey From GenCon to Social Impact

“Gaming brings people together” – Lisa Su, CEO, Advanced Micro Devices This year, I had the unique opportunity to attend GenCon2023, North America’s largest tabletop game convention. With an estimated attendance surpassing 70,000, this year’s event gathered game designers, developers, distributors, and enthusiasts in Indianapolis. Over several days, attendees shared, tried out, and reveled in … Continued

Sparking New Collaborations and Deepening Relationships with Learning Communities

For funders considering various mechanisms for broader and deeper levels of engagement with organizations and stakeholders, Learning Communities are a powerful tool. They support the development of trusting and thoughtful relationships, cultivation of allies and supporters on mission-aligned topics, and establishment of credibility and expertise.  On the grantee side, Learning Communities provide pathways to connectivity … Continued

Gaming for Social Impact

“Games aren’t just filler in education. They have the ability to introduce, reinforce, or even assess learning of a given topic.” – Kara Carrero Games are fun. But what if we told you that we think that games can be so much more? What if games could not only teach, but evoke empathy, and drive … Continued

Small Steps to Great Impact in Trust-Based Philanthropy

We know that many funders are consistently determining how to best implement some of their lessons learned, while looking for jumping-off points for where and how they can go deeper in their work. Some of the questions we hear are: How can we improve our grantmaking to be in-line with trust-based philanthropy?  How can we … Continued

Navigating Challenging Conversations: Getting on The Same Page to Strengthen the Impact of Your Family’s Philanthropy

We are in a time and place where more families and family foundations are reflecting on their role in society and examining how their philanthropic presence can or should be growing, adapting and evolving to better address societal changes.  As part of this process, families and family foundations are grappling with complex issues and facing … Continued

Rethinking Leadership Development Evaluation

The following article was originally published in Stanford Social Innovation Review as part of their “Recognizing Leadership in All Its Forms” series. To read the article in its entirety visit SSIR with your subscription information or download a PDF. The social sector generally considers leadership development a good investment, especially when it comes to cultivating systems-level change. But … Continued

Centering Communities: A Case Study of Partnering in Place from Baltimore and Jackson

Place-based work has been an essential cornerstone of investing since philanthropy’s inception; it allows funders to address the unique issues and needs of a specific geographic area or community.  It involves directing resources toward community organizations, initiatives, and projects to create positive social impact and improve the health of a specific area or region. While … Continued

Letting Communities Lead: How National Funders Can Advance Equity by Partnering with Local and Regional Foundations

National funders have long sought ways to make positive social change happen in local communities. However, for some of these funders, place-based philanthropy encompasses pre-determined strategies, directive relationships with community “partners,” and strict accountability measures allowing little or no space to accommodate the particularities of local contexts. The all too frequent outcome of this type … Continued

Harnessing the Power of Values to Advance Narrative Change

Stories are the most powerful tools we have to connect with others, be remembered, and inspire action.[1] A single story can create empathy, challenge beliefs, and change hearts and minds. From Aesop’s Fables to Biblical parables, stories are often embedded with “lessons” about the way the world works, and teach us from a young age … Continued

Getting up to Speed on Supporting Grassroots

We only arrived in this decade a few years ago, and already the 2020s are a time of transformational social and policy change. A pandemic, the increasing threat of climate change, and significant racial justice awareness have increased the importance of policy and advocacy campaigns more than ever. With a vibe shift in the field … Continued

Improving Advocacy Coalition Support and Effectiveness

Like it or not, policy advocacy is a large group project.  Different advocacy organizations supporting the same policy bring different insights, resources, skills, and abilities to do the work. The form of these advocacy group projects is often advocacy coalitions.  More than 10 years ago, we first started examining advocacy coalitions. We identified ways to … Continued