Member funds of the Women's Funding Network can use the following links to log onto Knowledge Center and Making the Case™:
Knowledge Center
Making the Case

Member funds may also log onto their Group discussion areas here:
Executive Directors
Development Staff
Communications Staff

Making the Case™: A Planning and Evaluation Framework for Social Change

The women's funding movement has a 30-year history of facilitating social change through its grantmaking programs. This history exists in the stories we pass on from person to person. Making the CaseTM is both a planning and evaluation framework that enables funds, foundations, and their grantee partners to enhance their strategic planning for social change work. This is in addition to capturing these stories of social change that enable aggregate measurement and documentation of collective impact.

Origins of Making the Case

Making the Case was developed by Women's Funding Network in response to an increasing demand among member funds for a tool to measure and evaluate social change. First, extensive research on existing social change models was conducted. When it was determined that no existing models would meet the unique needs of women's foundations, funds were leveraged to develop a new tool, and experts were contracted to help develop it. In collaboration with over 70 women's funds, grantees of women's funds, and other philanthropic organizations, over 20 beta versions of Making the Case were produced. In October, 2004 the first public version was launched. With the assistance of an international advisory group, the second version was developed and launched in October 2005.

Usage of Making the Case

Based on current experience, funders using Making the Case find the framework to be most effective when integrated throughout their entire grant cycle, beginning with incorporating the social change language in their requests for proposals and cycling through the entire evaluation and reporting process. Women's Funding Network is currently conducting initial implementation training with funds and their grantee partners in order to train the fund staff to implement the tool in future grant cycles. If you are interested in hosting a training, please contact us here.

To date, approximately 40 women's funds around the world have implemented Making the Case as their evaluation framework of choice, resulting in over 400 grantee partners having completed or currently completing evaluations in the online tool.

Value of Making the Case

• Self-evaluation framework is empowering to use;
• Can be used to evaluate both programs and capacity-building grants;
• Contains educational components which build the capacity of organizations to understand how to measure social change results;
• Is flexible and can be used to meet a variety of fund needs including evaluation, project planning, and capacity-building;
• Provides a framework for organizing social change results so the impact can be effectively communicated to donors, Boards of Directors, and other stakeholders;
• Contains a database that collects valuable information on network-wide trends in social change philanthropy.

Smart Growth: A Life Stage Model for Social Change Philanthropy

Women's funds often grapple with unique organizational development opportunities and challenges. To take the mystery out of planning, Women's Funding Network offers Smart Growth: A Life Stage Model for Social Change Philanthropy. The model provides a road map for organizational growth and effectiveness.

Is your fund:

• Exploring whether to hire an executive director?
• Embarking on a strategic planning process?
• Unsure of whether your board and staff have a shared understanding of your fund's vision?
• Wondering if you should start building an endowment?
• Curious if you have the right systems in place to work efficiently?
• Examining whether your grantmaking is really achieving social change?

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, it's the right time to use Smart Growth. The model is based on six organizational life stages and 12 major organizational capacities, such as strategic planning, financial management, grantmaking, and resource development. Smart Growth includes:

• A short quiz when beginning discussions about organizational development.
• Detailed assessment worksheets to determine the developmental or life stage of each of the 12 organizational capacities and the overall life stage of the organization.
• Problem solving exercises.
• Examples of benchmarks for organizational growth
• An extensive list of resources and tools to support the assessments and assist your organization in moving successfully from one stage to the next.

The model has been adapted for private women's foundations and women's funds within community foundations. Women's Funding Network partner members can apply to receive consulting support from a trained Smart Growth consultant.

Women's Funding Network Members can download Smart Growth by accessing the Knowledge Center. Non members canorder the tool for $50 online at:

Online Order Form - SmartGrowth
Online Order Form -Smart Growth Private Foundation

For more information about Smart Growth e-mail membership <at> wfnet <dot> org or call (415) 441-0706 and ask to speak with one of our membership associates.