A case study of charitable investment impact assessment

Abstract

The Pablove Foundation has been raising resources since 2008 to fight childhood cancer by investing in underfunded, cutting-edge pediatric cancer research, and a participatory arts program that improves the lives of children being treated for cancer. Given numerous challenges in determining investment impact, the Foundation created key metrics such as the quality of grant recipients' contributions to the research literature, and the amount of subsequent cancer-related research funding generated. Evaluating the effect of the Foundation's participatory art program has been difficult given the pandemic-driven shift from in-person sessions to virtual classes. Nonetheless, standard client survey feedback suggests that the virtual classes are not only functioning quite well, but also that accessibility is enhanced. It is clear that imaginative thinking is as important in assessment as it is in implementing medical research funding and arts programming. Practical implications of these findings for evaluation/assessment efforts by other foundations, nonprofit organizations, and development staff are examined.