The Art and Science of Place-Based Philanthropy: Themes From a National Convening
National Convening
Giannina Fehler-Cabral 0 1
Meg Long 0 1
Harder+Company Community Research
0 Part of the Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons, and the Public Affairs , Public Policy
1 Fehler-Cabral , G., James, J., Preskill, H., & Long, M. (2016). The Art and Science of Place-Based
Equal Measure Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/tfr and Public Administration Commons Recommended Citation Philanthropy: Themes From a National Convening. The Foundation Review, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.9707/
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Key Points
• This article shares insights and implications
generated at a convening titled Is This a
Better Place? The Art and Science of Place
Evaluation. Participants included funders,
evaluators, and community partners who
came to discuss and share effective learning
practices and the role of evaluation in
place-based work.
• Place-based work requires a long-term
investment in collaborative partnerships
to create, nurture, and sustain local and
systemic changes. In order to support this
complex work, partners have to incorporate
approaches that are nimble, iterative, and
responsive to the changing needs of a
“place” over an initiative’s life span.
• The convening produced a number of
considerations, presented in this article, for how
funders, and their investments in evaluation,
can support the design, implementation, and
overall success of place-based efforts.
As our understanding of the complex, interre
lated, and systemic issues affecting place has led
to more sophisticated conceptual frameworks
(Ferris & Hopkins, 2015)
, it has also resulted
in a resurgence of interest in place by multiple
affinity groups (e.g., Grantmakers for Effective
Organization’s Place-Based Philanthropy
Community of Practice, the Neighborhood
Funders Group’s Working Group on Place-Based
Community Change), large-scale public-sector
initiatives (e.g., Promise Neighborhoods), and as
evidenced by the importance of place within the
national collective impact movement. Nationally
and locally, we have not leveraged the
collective knowledge of this work and established a
strong place-based field. In many cases, multiple
and parallel place-based investments in the same
community are not intentionally integrated, and
in some cases conflict with one another.
The Art and Science of
Place-Based Philanthropy:
Themes From a National Convening
In response to this trend, the Aspen Forum for
Community Solutions and the Neighborhood
Funders Group (NFG) decided to collaborate on
Introduction a series of convenings about place-based
initiaFor more than 50 years, philanthropic and pub- tives in 2014 and 2015. Aspen’s interest in this
lic-sector organizations have invested in numer- topic stems from its national Opportunity Youth
ous place-based initiatives to address persistent Incentive Fund, which is supporting 21
comand pervasive poverty in communities around munities across the U.S. in improving education
the country. Place-based initiatives use a com- and employment for young adults. The NFG is a
prehensive and intentional set of strategies to network of foundations and other philanthropic
address the social, health, and economic needs oforganizations working to improve economic and
a neighborhood, city, or region. Place-based work social conditions in low-income communities.
requires a long-term commitment to a particular
community, development of ongoing relation- The first event was Towards a Better Place: A
ships with multiple community stakeholders, Conversation About Place-Based Philanthropy
and supports and resources beyond grantmaking.
(Aspen Institute & NFG, 2015)
. It sparked
1. to share effective, innovative learning p-rac
tices for dynamic, complex environments;
various topical thread1 si,ncluding interest in
learning more about the role of evaluation
and evaluators in supporting place-based work
(Aspen Institute & Neighborhood Funders 2. to identify appropriate questions and m-et
Group, 2015)
. In response to this interest, Aspen rics at different developmental stages of
and NFG collaborated with the Jacobs Center for place-based initiatives; and
Neighborhood Innovation, a community
development organization working in San Diego’s 3. to explore evaluation’s role in the power
Diamond neighborhood, and a national planning dynamics of place.
committee to develop a follow-up convening,
Is This a Better Place? The Art and Science of Place
Based Evaluation (Aspen Institute, 2016).
The convening’s organizers sought to create a
unique experience by inviting triads of funders,
evaluators, and community representatives
This article shares key insights and implications engaged in place-based initiatives to anchor
from this convening and subsequent reflection a semistructured, conversation-based format
by the authors (who also facilitated convening aimed at fostering understanding among the
sessions) about how funders and their inve-st roles2. It was attended by 125 people, (...truncated)