Blog

As a result of the Improve Group’s partnership with Cecelia Dodge & Associates, LLC, we are offering a series of articles this fall that highlight the ways data can be used to improve instruction and transform schools for the achievement of ALL learners.

Over the past several months, the Improve Group team spent some time reflecting on how cultural competence informs and is present in our work.  There is extensive academic and practical work focusing on cultural competence, and we were able to explore several definitions (such as in this compilation). Cultural competence is important to evaluation practice for several reasons:

As explained by the Balanced Scorecard Institute, the balanced scorecard was designed by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton ”as a performance measurement framework that added strategic, non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more balanced view of organizational performance” (see Balanced Scorecard Basics).

Foundations share similar needs and dilemmas as nonprofits and the public sector when it comes to evaluation. The Council on Foundations’ website lists reasons for involving and even expanding the philanthropic community in evaluation work, such as gauging the appropriateness of the objectives of the grants or the likelihood of raising additional funds.