Select Writing & Speaking
Writing
Strategy for Now
by Jara Dean-Coffey and Jill Casey
This article reintroduces a multifaceted definition of strategy, summarizes an approach in which strategy and evaluative inquiry are integrated, shares experiences of those who engaged in the approach, and offers considerations for strategy grounded in the now and the future.
The Foundation Review (2024)
"It’s about more than equity: Equitable
Evaluation Framework®"
by Jara Dean-Coffey,Chapter 9 in Research Handbook on Program Evaluation, edited by Kathryn Newcomer and Steven Mumford
Our focus on ends leads us to overlook and miss insights around intentions, choices, decisions and positionality that may be useful in other efforts. This chapter is the backstory to what became the practice of the Equitable Evaluation Framework™ which lives as intended with others.
“Raising the Bar” was published in 2014. As part of The Foundation Review 15th Anniversary it is re-released with a Prologue by Jara sharing how her feeling and thinking evolved leading to a different line of inquiry and the initial Equitable Evaluation Framework™.
The Foundation Review (2024)
Language shapes our brains which are connected to our bodies, hearts and souls. . . . What is made more possible if we reconsider the words we use in service of greater connection and clarity?
Medium.com (2024)
Trust is about human connection. It is about me valuing you and you me. We must become more comfortable with the unpredictability of human dynamics.
Bridgespan Group (2024)
“But as long as there’s a human heart, head, and hand, data is influenced by that. So there is no objectivity; there’s different degrees of subjectivity. And what I would appreciate is a greater honesty about that subjectivity.”
Chandler Foundation Interview (2022)
Research can inform strategies with evaluation as a core partner in that effort. This chapter offers perspectives on refocusing traditional research and evaluation within a rigorous, values-based framework in service to racial justice and health equity
Edited by Alonzo L. Plough,
free e-book, (2022)
The term “pipeline” is typically used to refer to the supply of people entering and ready to work in the field of philanthropic evaluation. In this report, we propose that the notion of a “pipeline” needs to be reimagined and recalibrated.
​Luminare Group (2020)
In this Q&A, Jara responds to her essay "Values, Voice, and an Equitable Vision of Validity" included in a series honoring the late co-founder of CSSP, Harold Richman. Primary Essay:
The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), (2020)
As we work to advance racial equity in philanthropy, four practices can help us find and stay with our learning edge—the boundaries of our comfort zones and competencies where changes are truly transformative and freeing.
Stanford Social Innovation Review (2019)
Knowing how race/racism has influenced both, philanthropy and evaluation, deepens our understanding of how philanthropic evaluation practice may unintentionally reinforce racism and limit what is possible for us to understand or even know.
American Journal of Evaluation
(2018)
Selected blog postings from the archive. "To What End" was the first blog Jara and team hosted beginning in 2010 and is also a key question Jara asks of all clients and collaborators.
(2010 - 2019)
Speaking
Makiyah Moody, founder of Kairos & Heart Consulting debuts her interview series Baobab Brilliance Perspectives on Audacity with Jara. Jara shares her perspectives on finding joy, embracing possibility, and the insignificance of her significance in this thought-provoking conversation.
Kairos & Heart Consulting (2024)
"Author Jara Dean-Coffey shares an overview of her article from The Foundation Review, Vol. 16, Issue 1 and answers the questions "Why has your paper topic garnered so much interest? How has it provoked conversations and feedback from the Foundation Review Audience?"
The Foundation Review (2024)
Podcast: Episode 2: Jara Dean-Coffey and Marcia Coné
In this episode of The Measure Podcast, Jara Dean-Coffey and Marcia Coné of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative discuss the origins and elements of the Equitable Evaluation Framework™, the importance of context in philanthropic work, and the necessary evolution of evaluation and philanthropy in the United States.
Equal Measure (2023)
Deven Wisner, Tiffany Smith, & Libby Smith of Radical (Re)Imagining chat with Jara Dean-Coffey about what it means to show up to work with our values intact.
Radical (Re)Imagining (2020)
Evaluation as a Tool Towards Equity (Webinar)
Presented by the ABFE
Jara takes us in-depth with the Association of Black Foundation Executives giving context, key points, recent findings and hopes for Equitable Evaluation in the field of philanthropy.
A good 101 for folks new the work.
ABFE (2015)