Lucy Bernholz Looks at Evaluating Innovation in the Social Sector

In their pursuit of the public good, foundations face two competing forces — the pressure to do something new and the pressure to do something proven. The epigraph to this paper, “Give me something new and prove that it works,” is my own summary of what foundations often seek. These pressures come from within the foundations — their staff or boards demand them, not the public. The aspiration to fund things that work can be traced to the desire to be careful, effective stewards of resources. Foundations’ recognition of the growing complexity of our shared challenges drives the increased emphasis on innovation. Issues such as climate change, political corruption, and digital learning and work environments have enticed new players into the social problem-solving sphere and have convinced more funders of the need to find new solutions. The seemingly mutually exclusive desires for doing something new and doing something proven are not new, but as foundations have grown in number and size the visibility of the paradox has risen accordingly.