| Notes |
To launch the pilot initiative, the Foundation drew upon several pioneering schools of thought about results-based accountability in philanthropy and beyond. The Foundation began by working with the Rensselaerville Institute, an organization with well- developed expertise in results-based accountability. Foundation staff worked closely with staff from the Institute to develop Casey’s initial ideas about how to infuse a results-based approach into the Foundation’s work. The Foundation also found Mark Friedman’s results accountability materials useful. Friedman took on a consulting role, presenting workshops to the Foundation and offering insight on the development of a results framework. The framework began to take shape as a merging of the Rensselaerville Institute and Friedman schools of thought. Additional insight came from Peter Frumkin’s work on strategic grant making.5
In developing this framework, the Foundation involved grantees in various ways. Initially, selected grantees attended day-long meetings at the Foundation’s offices. Foundation staff traveled to grantees’ sites to make pre- sentations and discuss the evolving model. Working with grantees to develop more results-based letters of agreement also helped hone the process. As Foundation staff asked grantees to develop performance measures and provided assistance to them in doing so, we were able to refine Casey’s RBA approach in response to this early grantee experience. Later, the education program conducted a pilot survey asking grantees for feedback about the entire Casey grant-making process. Grantee involvement helped make the results-based accounta- bility system one that would work well in practice, not just in theory.
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