GEOList Summary: Field Building Framework for Strategy and Evaluation

The NH Endowment for Health is currently engaged in a strategic planning process that involves applying a framework of “field building” to our work to advance systems change and, ultimately, improve health outcomes for people and is looking for insight into how other foundations may have used a field building framework for strategy and evaluation. The use of this framework is based on our past experience and understanding of foundation best practices that suggest that foundations like ours (with small grantmaking dollars) can be most effective when they “build fields” through support for coalitions, convening, advocacy and policy work, research, and knowledge and best practice advancement. We are using this framework (based on Bridgespan’s Strong Field Framework as well as RWJ work on exiting fields responsibly) in several ways: - Diagnostically to identify health fields where we might effectively lend support in the future. - Strategically to assess fields in which we are working to identify the current state of the field and identify areas where we might effectively lend support. - Evaluatively to identify “measures of success” to help us assess our contributions to field building and markers to help us identify when our contributions to field building are completed and we might begin exiting. Aside from the two documents referenced above, a Google search yielded little as far as foundation experience with such a framework. If anyone has any experience or documentation to share relative to this, we would greatly appreciate it. If you have experience with this but no documentation, we’d be interested in knowing if you’d be available for a phone call with us. As always, we are happy to compile what we learn and share it through the listserv.