Abstract
This Master of Public Health (MPH) capstone project explores Philadelphia-area health
grantmaker organizations use of evaluation methods in both their grantmaking and their
everyday activities. Data was gathered for this project using semi-structured qualitative
interviews with key-informants that served as organizational representatives. These interviews
examine how different organizations use evaluation and explore what organizations find to be
barriers and what they find to be facilitators to implementing evaluation activities. Specific
attention in the study was paid to the barriers and the facilitators relating to evaluating health
programs and to grantmaking in health fields. The information gathered will be the basis for a
“lessons learned” executive summary to be shared with the grantmaking community that aims to
increase the presence and formality of evaluation activities in the “grantmaking in health”
community. This executive summary will be particularly useful for small and mid-sized
organizations that have few evaluation resources.
Key words: Effective Philanthropy, Evaluation, Grantmaking, Health