Evaluation policies in philanthropic foundations: Ideals and realities

Foundations play an important role in modern societies, but not much is known about the quality and outcomes of the many diverse activities they support. There is an increasing interest in evaluation policy as a systematic approach to evaluation in foundations. We study the extent to which foundations in Denmark publish an explicit evaluation policy, as well as their requirements on grantees and the evaluative information that foundations offer back to stakeholders and society. Based on a systematic study of the websites of a representative sample of 20 foundations, we find that only three have explicit evaluation policies, and they are not very comprehensive. The majority of foundations do not engage in evaluation, and many do not provide any substantial evaluative information on their website. We offer the extraction/public provision ratio (EPPR) as a conceptual device for further studies. We also discuss barriers and potential improvements in foundations’ engagement with evaluation policy.