“Community” is a word that shows up often in philanthropy and place-based evaluation and learning. It can refer to residents, nonprofit partners, Tribal Nations, public agencies, or other groups connected to a place. Those groups may have very different relationships to the work and very different levels of influence over what gets learned. When we use the term without getting more specific, those differences can disappear.
These questions came up repeatedly during ELEVATE’s pilot learning community. Participants wanted to be more precise about who was included when they used the word “community” and what role those people had in learning and evaluation. Being invited to participate can mean very different things depending on whether someone is asked for input or has influence over the learning itself. Those distinctions mattered enough that we wanted to give funders a practical way to work through them.
That led us to develop Getting Clear About “Community” in Place-Based Learning and Evaluation with Steph Schilling of Headwaters Foundation, Robiel Abraha of Houston Endowment, and Rod Martinez of The Annie E. Casey Foundation. The resource helps funders name the people and groups connected to a place instead of relying on “community” as a catchall. It also offers a way to think more deliberately about the role and influence those people should have in a learning or evaluation process.
With the resource now available, we wanted to see what these questions look like in actual foundation work. Headwaters Foundation is sharing the first story in the series, with more examples coming from Houston Endowment and other funding partners. Each example is grounded in a different context and set of relationships. Our goal is to make those choices more visible so other funders can consider how similar questions show up in their own work.
First in the series: Headwaters Foundation
Headwaters Foundation is sharing the first story in the series today. Steph Schilling reflects on Headwaters’ Early Childhood Initiative evaluation and its partnership with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Her post looks at whose perspectives were represented in the evaluation and what it took to create a meaningful role for people in shaping the learning.
Later this fall, we will add stories from Houston Endowment and other funders. We created a Getting Clear About “Community” landing page as the home for the series, where you can download the resource and find each post as it is released. If you want to know when new stories are added, you can also join the ELEVATE mailing list. We will share each new post there as it goes live
As you read, we invite you to consider how the word “community” is being used in your own learning and evaluation work. Getting more specific can make it easier to see whose knowledge is shaping the work and whether their level of influence matches the role you intend for them to have. We hope the resource and stories offer useful examples to think with as you make those choices.
