Measuring Our Success

Foellinger Foundation grantees are familiar with our evaluation requirements. Our mission is to support organizations that work to help Allen County residents increase their self-reliance. In 2019, we introduced our new evaluation system to help organizations be most effective. Read more about the system here.

Not only is it important for our grantees to utilize evaluation systems, the Foundation itself also relies on comprehensive reports of external evaluators to provide us with feedback and guidance on our initiatives. Of course, we also seek the feedback of organizations we support, and we study their results. We must measure our own results.

“Most philanthropists want to be effective altruists. The problem isn’t intention; it is measurement. Unlike financial investing, which has reporting standards, audit processes, and educational requirements, social investing is notoriously tricky to evaluate.” — Leila Janah, founder and CEO of Samasource and LXMI

Since 1991, we have used eight different consultants to evaluate 12 initiatives. These initiatives provided funds to grantees totaling near $60 million, and ranged from a two-year span to a nineteen-year span. When you’re making these types of investments, one must evaluate their effectiveness.

After all, Accountability is one of our founders’ values. This value is intrinsic in all we do.