Learning is fundamental to everything Piper Trust does. From the start, Piper trustees and staff have sought to learn from the community we serve—through community conversations on our core grantmaking areas, by bringing thought leaders to the Valley to shape important conversations and to improve necessary skills, and by working side by side with our nonprofit partners.
Piper Trust has evaluation staff to guide our measurement activities, but all staff—in program, communication, finance, grants management and evaluation—are part of our ongoing self-evaluation as well as project and initiative reporting and evaluation.
 | Evaluating the work and effectiveness of Piper Trust itself is essential and we ask ourselves tough questions about our progress every day to improve decisions and make necessary changes. In 2008, the Trust commissioned a second Grantee Awareness Survey. |
 | No single approach to evaluation works for all circumstances. Program and evaluation staff work closely with potential grantees to identify how the organization will measure success. For some grants and initiatives, staff and grantees may design a more formal evaluation or use other techniques like learning circles and cluster reports. |
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From Insight to Action: New Directions in Foundation Evaluation by Mark Kramer, FSG Social Impact Advisors, funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, April 2007. |
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