Good intentions aren't impact.
And a great story isn't necessarily evidence that something is working.
Donors, foundations, advisors, and nonprofits all face the same deceptively simple question about the work they care about:
how do we know?
How do we know?
Those questions are harder than they look.
I've seen this from both sides.
I've evaluated programs funded by the Gates Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and other major philanthropies. I've also been a nonprofit Executive Director and a Director of Evaluation and Learning.
who wants evidence.
trying to prove its impact.
who wants to know whether their money will actually make a difference.
Today, I help people make better decisions about impact.
The work changes depending on the situation. Which one sounds like you?
Trying to figure out where to give.
You want your giving to accomplish something real. I help you understand what the evidence actually says before you commit.
Explore this →Trying to understand whether your grantmaking is working.
Strategy, portfolio, and grantee evaluation from someone who has been the evaluator, the grantee, and the reader of the reports.
Explore this →Helping a client make a major philanthropic decision.
You handle the financial and legal strategy. I bring the independent read on whether the impact is real.
Explore this →Trying to get clearer, and more honest, about your impact.
Logic models, theories of change, and evaluation you can actually stand behind when a funder asks the hard question.
Explore this →of major donors say their giving is based on the organization's impact.
Which makes the next question the important one: how would they know if it worked?
The work changes depending on the situation. The question doesn't:
What do we actually know about the impact we're trying to create?
That's the space I work in: philanthropy, evidence, evaluation, and the messy but important space between good intentions and actual results.
What partners say about the work
A decade-plus of evaluation partnerships across education, research, and nonprofit organizations.
Christian entered a role in crisis and within six months created real buy-in for evaluation and built a two-year strategy with strong internal investment.
She took us through building a logic model step by step, compelling, accessible, and incredibly useful. We still use the metrics she created to measure our impact.
Christian guided Muse Knoxville through developing a logic model to support data collection for a new program. A fantastic facilitator and an incredible teacher.
Her ability to communicate outcomes and provide thorough support materials for 30+ coaches was so impressive I've modeled my own work on her approach.
The Before The Gift™ Confidence Snapshot
Weighing a major gift? Answer a few questions and see what you can already say with confidence, and what a bit more diligence would strengthen. Five minutes.
If you're wrestling with that question, I'd love to hear what you're trying to figure out.
No pitch. Just a conversation about what you're trying to know.
Let's talk