Ethics and program evaluation are the subjects of two new grant-related reports from Independent Sector, a coalition of some 800 corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations.
“Everyday Ethics: Key Ethical Questions for Grantmakers and Grantseekers’’ is a workbook-style publication designed to help foundations and the groups they fund examine the ethical implications of their practices and polices.
“A Vision of Evaluation’’ is a report on Independent Sector’s three-year project that aims to improve the assessment of philanthropy-funded programs. It examines the purpose of evaluation, barriers to its effectiveness, and the “human side’’ of evaluation.
Copies of “Everyday Ethics,’' at $14.50 each, and “A Vision of Evaluation,’' at $17.50 each, are available from Independent Sector, P.O. Box 451, Annapolis Junction, Md. 20701; (301) 490-3229.
The DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund has announced a five-year, $6.5 million initiative that seeks to improve the quality and availability of child care for school-age children.
The fund has launched the project with a four-year, $1.7 million grant to the Wellesley School-Age Child Care Project, based at the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
In conjunction with the Wellesley center, the foundation will select five urban communities with a particular need for child care for school-age children. Each site will receive a one-year planning grants this year. Three of the five will then receive three-year implementation grants.
The Pew Partnership for Civic Change, an initiative funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia, has announced the selection of 15 cities for the first round of its grant competition for small cities.
The initiative is designed to encourage collaboration between public, private, and nonprofit entities to improve the quality of life in small cities.
The winners, chosen from a pool of 100 cities, are: Albany, Ga.; Asheville, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Charleston, W.Va.; Danville, Va., Eugene, Ore.; Fargo, N.D. (with Moorhead, Minn.); Longview, Tex.; Peoria, Ill.; Pine Bluff, Ark.; Rapid City, S.D.; Santa Fe, N.M.; Tyler, Tex.; Utica, N.Y.; and Waco, Tex.
The partnership is administered by the University of Richmond at an office in Charlottesville, Va.--MEG SOMMERFELD