Next Generation Evidence serves as a prequel to Show Me the Evidence: Obama's Fight for Rigor and Results in Social Policy by Ron Haskins and Greg Margolis. While Show Me the Evidence highlighted the importance of prioritizing funding for programs with evidence, Next Generation Evidence looks at how we can build the pipeline of evidence-producing programs. Evidence is remarkably powerful; it helps us understand the needs of communities, make decisions in times of change and scarcity, and build and do more of what works. However, practitioners face a number of structural and practical hurdles to building and using evidence. Traditional evaluation and research methods are often not timely, affordable, meaningful, or inclusive for helping practitioners make decisions to increase their impact for people and communities. Too often and for too long, evaluation was a thing done to practitioners and the communities they serve, relegating them to a passive role when they should be regarded as leaders of this work. Worse, their data and evidence has been used against them in disempowering thumbs-up, thumbs-down circumstances, rather than for learning and improvement that leads to impact. Next Generation Evidence features innovative thinking from leaders across policy, philanthropy, research, and practice. Together, these leaders lay out a vision for a stronger, more equitable data and evidence ecosystem that centers on the voices of people and communities most directly impacted by the problems we seek to solve. Throughout the book, case studies featuring practitioners at various stages in their evidence-building journey highlight concrete illustrations of how continuous evidence building can benefit organizations and outcomes for communities.
About the Author: Kelly Fitzsimmons is a committed social innovator. Before founding Project Evident in 2017, Kelly served as vice president / chief program and strategy officer at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF), where she led policy innovation, evaluation, grantmaking, and the early capital aggregation pilot. Prior to EMCF, she cofounded Leadwell Partners and New Profit Inc., held senior leadership positions in nonprofit organizations, and served on several foundation and social sector boards and advisory committees. Kelly currently serves as a Leap of Reason ambassador and is a member of Results for America's Invest in What Works Federal Standard of Excellence Advisory Committee. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Fitzsimmons holds an MBA from Boston University. Tamar Bauer is an attorney with expertise in harnessing policy strategies to drive better and more equitable outcomes for communities. She focuses on actionable innovation in the public and private sectors, with demonstrated success in driving federal and state policy change. As chief policy officer at Nurse-Family Partnership from 2006 to 2017, she helped secure $1.5 billion in federal funds to create the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program and mobilized $30 million in public and private funding to expand services for families in South Carolina's Pay for Success initiative. Prior to NFP, Tamar helped launch the New York Academy of Medicine's Child Health Forum and advanced policy work at the New York March of Dimes and American Academy of Pediatrics.