Clare Nolan
Biographic Data
| ID | 4170123 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Clare Nolan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Clare |
| FAMILY NAME | Nolan |
| SIGNATURE | NOLAN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lynn University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Power-Sharing Under Pressure: What a Decade of Community Partnership Reveals for Philanthropy Today
Between 2017 and 2024, U.S. philanthropy experienced a period of significant innovation as many foundations reconsidered long-standing assumptions about control and began taking steps to share power more directly with the communities they fund. This article draws on community leaders’ reflections, alongside the authors’ perspective as long-term evaluators, to examine how these commitments were experienced in practice. The article focuses on the D…
Leaning into the Messiness of Authentic Engagement: Fostering Reciprocity in Foundation Strategy, Learning, and Evaluation
Over the last several years, numerous foundations have endeavored to forge deeper relationships with grantees and challenge the status quo in strategy development and evaluation design. Encouraged by efforts such as the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project and the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, some funders are seeking to redefine how they engage grantees and field partners by navigating the nuances of power dynamics, mutual interests, and genuine …
Utilising existing data for a pilot social return on investment analysis of the family wellbeing empowerment program: A justification and framework
Demand is growing in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors for economic and quantifiable outcome data to guide decisions regarding the allocation of resources. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities in economically evaluating an Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing intervention, emphasising the value of utilising existing data. Driven by local and national Indigenous research priorities, the study involved a pilot Soci…
Strategy Resilience: Getting Wise About Philanthropic Strategy in a Post-Pandemic World
Public and private systems worldwide have been disrupted by COVID-19, cutting across all types of philanthropic priorities. Amid this uncertainty, some philanthropic strategies have struggled to find their footing while others have adapted easily, harnessing previously unanticipated opportunities to achieve change. Why have some philanthropic strategies been more successful than others? What wisdom can we draw from this moment that can help us pr…
Assessing Change and Deepening Impact in Early Learning Systems: The Formal-System Self-Assessment Tool
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is investing in a 10-year strategy, Starting Smart and Strong, that partners with three California communities to develop and test solutions to support parents, caregivers, and educators as they prepare children to be ready for school. Central to this strategy are community efforts to create comprehensive early learning systems that model quality teaching practices, secure and ensure adequate distribution o…
Executive Summary
The inherent power imbalance in the grantmaker/grantee relationship has come into particular focus as equity and justice have become a greater priority for philanthropy. The McCune Charitable Foundation deliberately designed an emergent strategy approach that established clear goals and then created a platform to permit a reversal of that power dynamic, so that leadership for priorities comes from those closest to the work. The authors launched a…
Evaluators as Conduits and Supports for Foundation Learning
Evaluators play a critical role in supporting philanthropic learning, programming, and strategy, but evaluation and learning in philanthropy is often limited in ways that impede deeper resonance and impact. Most philanthropic evaluation is focused on the needs of individual foundations, knowledge sharing with the broader field is limited, and foundations struggle to integrate evaluation and learning as a management tool. This article makes the ca…
More Than Listening: Harnessing the Power of Feedback to Drive Collaborative Learning
Foundations can and should do a better job of gathering feedback from and learning with both grantees and the communities they seek to serve. This type of collaborative learning has the potential to inform and strengthen foundation strategy, grantmaking practices, evaluation, and communications. Gathering meaningful input is difficult, however, given power dynamics between foundations and those they support. Even when authentic input has been gat…
Full Issue #11.2 on Collaborative Learning
describe the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, a multiyear collaboration of 17 funders in Los Angeles County, California, that supports nonprofit organizations to collaborate and restructure in a variety of forms. As the initiative evolved, its evaluation and learning system had to have the ability to evolve with it. This article presents key design aspects of the system, describes how it evolved over time, and shares insights and learnings
Executive Summaries
The Denver Foundation launched the Basic Human Needs Navigator Learning Community in February 2014 to help navigators working with local organizations and community members improve their practice and identify similarities and differences in their approaches. This article discusses the multiyear, peer-learning project, including the general lessons the foundation learned about both navigation and the use of a learning-community approach to reach i…
Full Issue
The Foundation
By Us and For Us: A Story of Early Childhood Development Systems Change and Results in a Rural Context
Since 2007, the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund — a donor-advised fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation — has invested in early childhood development in Coös County — New Hampshire’s largest and most rural and economically disadvantaged county. Community providers from a range of disciplines formed strong professional relationships and agreed on common goals and evidence-based strategies to improve services for children and families. Thi…
Foundations as Network Strategists, Weavers, and Managers: Learning From One Foundation’s Journey and Results
This article shares insights from a five-year evaluation of the Oral Health 2020 network, an effort by the DentaQuest Foundation to align and strengthen efforts in service of a national movement to improve oral health. The evaluation helped to place the foundation’s journey in the context of a broader field seeking new approaches to achieve deep and sustainable social change. The foundation’s approach was informed by several ideas that have gaine…
Building the Capacity of California's Safety Net: Lessons From the Strengthening Community Dental Practices Demonstration
Community dental practices provide “safety net” services to populations who would otherwise have limited access to care. The financial crisis of recent years has made it increasingly difficult for safetynet dental practices to serve people most in need while still balancing their books
Beyond the NPR Crowd: How Evaluation Influenced Grantmaking at the California Council for the Humanities
This article describes an initiative designed to engage a broad cross section of Californians in the humanities. Initial findings from book reading groups were that participants were predominantly white, middle-aged women
Strategy Resilience: Getting Wise About Philanthropic Strategy in a Post-Pandemic World
Public and private systems worldwide have been disrupted by COVID-19, cutting across all types of philanthropic priorities. Amid this uncertainty, some philanthropic strategies have struggled to find their footing while others have adapted easily, harnessing previously unanticipated opportunities to achieve change. Why have some philanthropic strategies been more successful than others? What wisdom can we draw from this moment that can help us pr…
By Us and For Us: A Story of Early Childhood Development Systems Change and Results in a Rural Context
Since 2007, the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund — a donor-advised fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation — has invested in early childhood development in Coös County — New Hampshire’s largest and most rural and economically disadvantaged county. Community providers from a range of disciplines formed strong professional relationships and agreed on common goals and evidence-based strategies to improve services for children and families. Thi…
Beyond the NPR Crowd: How Evaluation Influenced Grantmaking at the California Council for the Humanities
This article describes an initiative designed to engage a broad cross section of Californians in the humanities. Initial findings from book reading groups were that participants were predominantly white, middle-aged women
Building the Capacity of California's Safety Net: Lessons From the Strengthening Community Dental Practices Demonstration
Community dental practices provide “safety net” services to populations who would otherwise have limited access to care. The financial crisis of recent years has made it increasingly difficult for safetynet dental practices to serve people most in need while still balancing their books
Foundations as Network Strategists, Weavers, and Managers: Learning From One Foundation’s Journey and Results
This article shares insights from a five-year evaluation of the Oral Health 2020 network, an effort by the DentaQuest Foundation to align and strengthen efforts in service of a national movement to improve oral health. The evaluation helped to place the foundation’s journey in the context of a broader field seeking new approaches to achieve deep and sustainable social change. The foundation’s approach was informed by several ideas that have gaine…
Executive Summaries
The Denver Foundation launched the Basic Human Needs Navigator Learning Community in February 2014 to help navigators working with local organizations and community members improve their practice and identify similarities and differences in their approaches. This article discusses the multiyear, peer-learning project, including the general lessons the foundation learned about both navigation and the use of a learning-community approach to reach i…
Full Issue
The Foundation
By Us and For Us: A Story of Early Childhood Development Systems Change and Results in a Rural Context
Since 2007, the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund — a donor-advised fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation — has invested in early childhood development in Coös County — New Hampshire’s largest and most rural and economically disadvantaged county. Community providers from a range of disciplines formed strong professional relationships and agreed on common goals and evidence-based strategies to improve services for children and families. Thi…
Executive Summary
The inherent power imbalance in the grantmaker/grantee relationship has come into particular focus as equity and justice have become a greater priority for philanthropy. The McCune Charitable Foundation deliberately designed an emergent strategy approach that established clear goals and then created a platform to permit a reversal of that power dynamic, so that leadership for priorities comes from those closest to the work. The authors launched a…
Evaluators as Conduits and Supports for Foundation Learning
Evaluators play a critical role in supporting philanthropic learning, programming, and strategy, but evaluation and learning in philanthropy is often limited in ways that impede deeper resonance and impact. Most philanthropic evaluation is focused on the needs of individual foundations, knowledge sharing with the broader field is limited, and foundations struggle to integrate evaluation and learning as a management tool. This article makes the ca…
More Than Listening: Harnessing the Power of Feedback to Drive Collaborative Learning
Foundations can and should do a better job of gathering feedback from and learning with both grantees and the communities they seek to serve. This type of collaborative learning has the potential to inform and strengthen foundation strategy, grantmaking practices, evaluation, and communications. Gathering meaningful input is difficult, however, given power dynamics between foundations and those they support. Even when authentic input has been gat…
Full Issue #11.2 on Collaborative Learning
describe the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, a multiyear collaboration of 17 funders in Los Angeles County, California, that supports nonprofit organizations to collaborate and restructure in a variety of forms. As the initiative evolved, its evaluation and learning system had to have the ability to evolve with it. This article presents key design aspects of the system, describes how it evolved over time, and shares insights and learnings
Assessing Change and Deepening Impact in Early Learning Systems: The Formal-System Self-Assessment Tool
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is investing in a 10-year strategy, Starting Smart and Strong, that partners with three California communities to develop and test solutions to support parents, caregivers, and educators as they prepare children to be ready for school. Central to this strategy are community efforts to create comprehensive early learning systems that model quality teaching practices, secure and ensure adequate distribution o…
Strategy Resilience: Getting Wise About Philanthropic Strategy in a Post-Pandemic World
Public and private systems worldwide have been disrupted by COVID-19, cutting across all types of philanthropic priorities. Amid this uncertainty, some philanthropic strategies have struggled to find their footing while others have adapted easily, harnessing previously unanticipated opportunities to achieve change. Why have some philanthropic strategies been more successful than others? What wisdom can we draw from this moment that can help us pr…
Utilising existing data for a pilot social return on investment analysis of the family wellbeing empowerment program: A justification and framework
Demand is growing in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors for economic and quantifiable outcome data to guide decisions regarding the allocation of resources. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities in economically evaluating an Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing intervention, emphasising the value of utilising existing data. Driven by local and national Indigenous research priorities, the study involved a pilot Soci…
Leaning into the Messiness of Authentic Engagement: Fostering Reciprocity in Foundation Strategy, Learning, and Evaluation
Over the last several years, numerous foundations have endeavored to forge deeper relationships with grantees and challenge the status quo in strategy development and evaluation design. Encouraged by efforts such as the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project and the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, some funders are seeking to redefine how they engage grantees and field partners by navigating the nuances of power dynamics, mutual interests, and genuine …
Power-Sharing Under Pressure: What a Decade of Community Partnership Reveals for Philanthropy Today
Between 2017 and 2024, U.S. philanthropy experienced a period of significant innovation as many foundations reconsidered long-standing assumptions about control and began taking steps to share power more directly with the communities they fund. This article draws on community leaders’ reflections, alongside the authors’ perspective as long-term evaluators, to examine how these commitments were experienced in practice. The article focuses on the D…
Political science (11 works) · Business (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Foundation (evidence (5 works) · Economics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Engineering (3 works)