USING 4C: Evaluating professional support for philanthropy

Why the 4C Framework?

What is the value of infrastructure support organizations serving philanthropy? These are the key questions, and areas for further work, identified in the WINGS report. Infrastructure in Focus: A Global Overview of Organizations Serving Philanthropy. To answer the key question, the report identifies (through a survey of foundations around the world) some of the key benefits of philanthropy support organizations including how they support foundations achieve their mission, how they help develop practice, how they influence their operating environment. It is recognized that many forms of support are not always tangible because often, it has to do with processes and relationships. As a result, much of this invisible work is undervalued and underfunded.

The need to develop a framework that would allow infrastructure organizations to measure change in the areas in which they work was clear. This became the starting point for a joint WINGS and DAFNE learning process involving 25 organizations over 18 months. Through this experience, participants learned by adapting and testing materials from our meetings, ultimately ensuring that the 4C Framework was built in the field, for use in the field.

The application of the 4C framework will help those involved in infrastructure support for philanthropy to not only measure its effectiveness in order to hold themselves accountable, but also to learn and improve in a more systematic way.