Ongoing Monitoring


We monitor and report on the impact of our initiatives and on the continued effectiveness of our implementing partners. Our ongoing monitoring includes:

  • Quarterly check-in calls or visits with nonprofit leadership
  • Off the record information sharing with other funders
  • Review of independent research
  • Review of unedited reports prepared by a nonprofit’s management for its Board
  • Public filings
  • Most importantly, regular visits by Focusing Philanthropy team members to program sites, wherever they are in the United States or around the world; we are committed to visiting a program site for each domestic nonprofit at least once a year and our international nonprofit program sites at least every other year; in most cases we visit more often, trying to visit different cities or countries to confirm program consistency and efficacy.

Occasionally, our monitoring causes us sufficient concern that we remove an implementing nonprofit from our active roster. We have done so when:

  • Leadership changes jeopardized program effectiveness or institutional stability
  • A change or expansion in priorities moved away from the focus that attracted us originally
  • Other donors pushed a nonprofit to take actions that we considered risky or for which the organization was ill-equipped
  • The nonprofit was not sufficiently candid or collaborative with us

198+ diligence and monitoring visits conducted, here and around the world.

Selected Field Reports


2023:

2022:

2021:

2020:

2019:

2018:

2014: