Over the past two years, the W. M. Keck Foundation initiated an external evaluation of its grant-making programs.  Towards this end, we secured the assistance of three blue-ribbon committees chaired by Harvey Fineberg for Medical Research, Ralph Cicerone for Science and Engineering, and Jim Ukropina for the Southern California grant program.  (The recently reorganized Undergraduate Education program will be evaluated at a later date.)  These panels in turn tasked subject area experts to evaluate the last 15 years of grants made by the Foundation.  After reviewing grant outcomes, the committees each made independent findings and recommendations.  These are helping to establish our priorities for future grantmaking.  We are indebted to these evaluation committees and subcommittees for their hard work.  A full list of the talented and dedicated people who helped review the programs is found at the end of this letter.

The committees’ recommendations, summarized here, will continue to inform Keck’s grantmaking, and provide a flexible framework for the types of grants and areas of funding the Keck Foundation will be alert to in the future.

Results of the Medical Research Program and Science and Engineering Research Program Evaluations:

• Continue to encourage interdisciplinary or high risk projects that fall outside of traditional funding programs.  The development of risky, innovative technology is often difficult to fund through traditional sources, making it a good target for private philanthropy.
•  Encourage projects that can have a transformative effect on their fields or create new fields.
• Fund development of pioneering instrumentation, new technologies and novel methodologies, as these new tools can then be available to be used in the field or across fields.
• Consider potential collateral benefits when reviewing a risky project, as those benefits can mitigate the possibility of failure.  A project may be worth trying, even if the ultimate outcome is not what was originally predicted or desired.
• Support a wide range of institutions and organizations, including “up-and-coming” institutions that are pursuing innovative and transformative projects.  Often smaller institutions have specific areas of excellence that can be nurtured and developed.
•  Seek a diverse set of individuals according to their career stages and research topics as well as gender and ethnicity.  The committees found that support for early career investigators can yield high-payoff results.
• Consider institutional leadership and commitment carefully, as they are critical to the success of a project.

Results of the Southern California Program Evaluation:

• Reaffirm the program focus on arts and culture, civic and community services, early childhood and K-12 education and health care, particularly where the programs and organizations benefit children and youth.
• Monitor social and community developments to determine if there are new areas of emphasis within existing funding categories that the Program may support.
• Continue funding capital projects, which when targeted and well planned, can help organizations innovate and grow to or stay at the forefront of their field.
• Encourage program grants that have the potential to bring about meaningful change for a target population or field.
• Increase emphasis on measurable outcomes to mark success of a project.
• Consider institutional leadership and commitment carefully, as they are critical to the success of a project.

Evaluation Committees

Medical Research Program

Evaluation Committee
Harvey Fineberg, Chair
Thomas Cech
Elias Zerhouni
Huda Zoghbi

Subcommittees
Cell Biology
Joan A. Steitz*
Tyler Jacks
Titia de Lange

Genetics
Bonnie Bassler*
Mary-Claire King
David Lipman
David Valle

Neuroscience
Eve Marder*
Cori Bargmann
Tom Jessell

Structural Biology
David Eisenberg*
Greg Petsko
Sriram Subramaniam
Peter Wright

Consultant
Sandra Hutchinson

Science and Engineering Research Program

Evaluation Committee
Ralph Cicerone, Chair
David Auston
Robert Dynes
Sharon Long

Subcommittees
Astrophysics, Cosmology, Atomic Physics, Nuclear Physics and Quantum Physics
Wendy Freedman*
Neal Lane
Margaret Murnane

Nanoscience, Materials Physics and Materials Chemistry
John C. Hemminger*
Carolyn Bertozzi
Thomas Rosenbaum
Peter Wolynes

Ecology, Geology, Environment and Climate Change
Michael Prather*
V. Ramanathan
Bess Ward

Biological Processes and Evolutionary Biology
Vicki Chandler*
Mimi Koehl
Elliot M. Meyerowitz
Lubert Stryer

Southern California Program

Evaluation Committee
Arts and Culture Panel
Joseph Deegan-Day, Chair
Louise Bryson
Samuel Hoi
Kevin Starr
Laura Zucker

Civic and Community Services Panel
Peter Barker, Chair
Patricia Bowie
Jacquelyn McCroskey
Carla Sanger
Jeff Schaffer

Education Panel
John E. Bryson, Chair
Lucinda Day Fournier, Co-Chair
Gary K. Hart
Parker Hudnut
Theodore Mitchell
Mikala Rahn

Health Care Panel
David A. Thomas, Chair
Michael Cousineau
Gloria Rodriguez
Robert Tranquada

Consultant
Marge Nichols

*Moderator