DOI
10.9707/1944-5660.1785
Key Points
This article offers a detailed account from within the Ford Foundation of what it takes to subject a complex social change strategy to genuine evaluative scrutiny. Drawing on the work of the Foundation’s Office of Strategy and Learning (OSL) and its evaluation of the Natural Resources and Climate Change program, it describes what shifts in strategy and learning were necessary, what was required organizationally, and what changed as a result.
The article delves into the evaluation process itself, including how OSL balanced the needs and perspectives of Ford leadership, program staff, and grantee partners. It shares how OSL centered equity in selecting an evaluator; elaborates on the relational work required to build buy-in across leadership and program teams; and shows how evaluation findings were used to refine the climate strategy, shaping decisions about what and whom to support and why.
The case surfaces lessons relevant to philanthropies working on strategy and evaluation for climate justice and other complex social change efforts, particularly those navigating organizational change, initiating or strengthening evaluation functions, and grappling with concepts like systems change and equity in practice.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Mathes, S., Rothenberg, B., & Simmons, K. (2026). Evaluating Complex Social Change: Lessons From Ford’s Climate Change Program. The Foundation Review, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.9707/1944-5660.1785
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