During the last several years, a constant barrage of events and forces have been challenging our thinking and pushing us to reflect on the role of racism, power, and privilege in our society. Many of us recognize that racism is deeply ingrained in our social fabric and embedded in our political and institutional policies and practices. What role can we as evaluators play in supporting efforts to truly dismantle systemic and cultural racism? What might we need to learn, or un-learn, to advance this work?

by Michael Matsunaga

At their best, convenings create space to generate ideas, catalyze collaboration, and inform strategy. But at their worst, they are a waste of precious time--disconnected from real issues and generating limited value for foundations and grantees alike. So, what does it take to bring grantees together in ways they find useful while also generating value for funders? Engage R+D partnered with the James Irvine Foundation last Fall to tackle this question in designing a convening for grantees of the Foundation’s new Fair Work initiative.

by Anna Saltzman

The new year brings an opportunity for reflections, resolutions, and goal-setting. As we enter 2019, we are focusing on our values and how these principles, as opposed to time-limited goals, can ground and inspire all of us to do our best work. In this blog, we share our reflections on five ways we lived our values in 2018, along with our future aspirations.

by Anna Saltzman, Meghan Hunt, and Jeff Mohr

We teamed up with the online visualization platform Kumu for an evaluation of the South Asia One Health Disease Surveillance Network. We’ll share how we used network mapping as a learning tool on the project, as well as a network mapping user guide to support your own efforts.

We're headed to Cleveland for the American Evaluation Association 2018 Conference this month! Are you? We'd love for you to join us at one of our sessions.

by Erika Takada

Foundations frequently convene their nonprofit partners and other stakeholders to share information and best practices. How can funders ensure these experiences make the most of nonprofits’ valuable time while also maximizing collective learning?

by Clare Nolan

At Engage R+D, we believe that knowledge has the power to spark change, but only if it is shared. Read on to take the knowledge-sharing quiz and download the worksheet for planning your organization’s knowledge-sharing strategy.

by Sonia Taddy-Sandino and Clare Nolan

As Engage R+D celebrates our one-year anniversary and the launch of our website, we can’t help but reflect on the refrain that “change is constant and inevitable.”