Foundation News —Chip Edelsberg

Foundation News
—Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director

September 2011

One of the areas of foundation work that I find rarely discussed is how various foundations use site visits their professionals conduct to advance philanthropic effectiveness.

At the Jim Joseph Foundation, we budget for each of the foundation’s program officers and senior executives to make one trip per quarter for grantee visitations. I am confident little in these dozens of annual site visits diverges from common practice. Nevertheless, I think it is helpful to describe how we at the Jim Joseph Foundation go about this piece of our business.

It is obvious that being in the field is the best way to see grants “in action.” Observing key personnel actually doing the specific work that an individual grant requires is an indispensable way for foundation professionals to develop an understanding of the often complex organizational social dynamics at play for any particular grant.

Naturally, on-site conversations with project directors, organization and institutional leaders, and other important grantee stakeholders cultivate in Jim Joseph Foundation professionals an appreciation for the amplitude of an individual grant. Candid conversation opens up possibilities for discovery. In the field, we occasionally discover what is not happening in the grant’s implementation; learn about project personnel who are excelling in their work; how a touted innovation is having unanticipated effects even as it does not appear to be accomplishing its intended purpose; etc. Additionally, dialogue with grantees in the spaces in which they conduct their work allows for conveyance of sensitive information on unforeseen challenges grantees are encountering with, for example, meeting fundraising benchmarks.

Then there is the most important dimension of site visit field work for Jim Joseph Foundation professionals: carefully assessing the Jewish learning experiences grantee beneficiaries are having. I would assert this is ultimately a predominantly subjective judgment, no matter what the agreed upon outcomes and metrics of project success may be. But I believe skilled foundation professionals bring a discerning eye, sound conceptual frameworks, and a connoisseur’s prospective to the field. Their descriptions, interpretation, and analysis of what grantee beneficiaries learn and how that learning comports with the purpose for which Jim Joseph Foundation funding was awarded is critical for contextualizing the grant.

At the Jim Joseph Foundation, we capitalize on the inherent richness of grantee site visits in three instrumental ways: first, testing our observation and findings with one another. Secondly, we share insights gleaned with project evaluators. Thirdly, we push boundaries of the dialogue in which we engage both the grantee and the grant evaluator to foster learning.

Foundation site visits to grantees involve expense. While it is obviously an expenditure of funds that does not go directly to grantees, the Jim Joseph Foundation views site visits as fundamental grantee due diligence and grant monitoring functions. We will continue to allocate resources prudently to what has become one of the foundations core learning activities.

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