Impact & Learning

In addition to engaging with formal learning and evaluation partners on major initiatives, Barr also seeks to learn alongside its partners on each grant to understand how their work is progressing, what has been achieved, and what challenges and barriers they encounter.

Programs and Strategies:

The Barr Foundation works to elevate the arts, advance solutions for climate change, and to connect all students to success in high school and beyond. We believe that the most effective strategies are never static, so we evaluate and reflect in order to refine and adapt our strategies in these program areas based on what we learn along the way, our partnerships with others, and in response to shifts in the external environment.

• Five Lessons Our Grantees Shared with Us in 2019
  
• 2019 Year in Review—A curated selection of writings by Barr staff and guest authors on progress, impacts, and learning.
• Four Lessons from Five Years Investing to Build Capacity in Boston’s Arts Sector
  
• Five Lessons from Two Decades of Early Education Grantmaking
• What We're Learning from a Regional Approach

Initiatives:

Given the value we place on long-term partnerships, Barr’s grantmaking can take the form of multi-year initiatives that support multiple partners tackling complex problems across our region. We believe these initiatives are significant learning opportunities for Barr, its partners, and the field. Our evaluations of these initiatives are designed to prioritize meaningful and actionable information to improve the work of our grantees and inform Barr’s strategic decision-making.

Grants:

Barr shares with its grantees a commitment to learn from what we are doing and continuously improve our efforts in pursuit of the greatest impact. By engaging with grantees on measurable outputs and outcomes for each grant, we aim to better understand how the work is progressing, what has been achieved, and what challenges and barriers they have encountered. The lessons learned from each grant also inform Barr’s broader learning and decision-making about its initiatives, strategies, and programs.