Gain insight to help the Foundation as well as public decision-makers schedule their programs

This entails analyzing, reviewing and facilitating a better understanding of processes, achievements and, when possible, the impact of the policies implemented by the Foundation to better orientate grantmaking. The aim is determining what works and what does not.

Impact analysis

Assessment of the degree of success attained by the Foundation’s policies via scientifically rigorous quantitative measurement (counterfactual logics).
Assessment is organized into four separate steps:
1. identification of a “result” variable (what does the project have an impact on?);
2. identification of a “treatment” variable (what does have an impact?);
3. estimate of the counterfactual value to be given to the ‘result’ variable in the counterfactual situation (what we would have observed if no project had been implemented) using experimental and non-experimental methods
4. measurement of the project impact as the difference between the value of the “result” variable observed after the project has been implemented and the value that would have been observed in the counterfactual situation.

In-depth Qualitative Analysis of Implementation, Outcome, Impact

Retrospective analysis of the context in which the project was implemented and perception of players involved in it. The ultimate goal is to get insight for the replication of tested approaches.

Giver Project

G.i.v.er. (Italian acronym meaning ‘Grant Makers interested in grantmaking assessment’) is a project geared to put in place a number of initiatives focused on analyzing, discussing, and educating on ex-post assessment of grants made. Its purpose is making Foundations fully understand their potential and the limits of the tools currently used for grantmaking assessment. In this Project, assessment is primarily intended as a way of learning lessons about the effectiveness of actions taken using the analytical tools typical of social sciences.