--- name: strategic-philanthropy-learning-agenda-builder description: "Turns a foundation's strategic priorities into a structured learning agenda with prioritized learning questions, evidence requirements, matched methods, a phased timeline, and explicit decision links showing how findings will inform future grantmaking. Use when building or refreshing a foundation's learning agenda, designing an evaluation plan for a strategy or portfolio, or connecting learning activities to specific grantmaking decisions." argument-hint: "[strategy-area] [time-horizon]" allowed-tools: ["Read"] --- # Strategic Philanthropy Learning Agenda Builder ## Purpose Convert a foundation's strategy into a decision-oriented learning agenda — a structured set of learning questions, each mapped to the evidence needed, the method to gather it, a timeline, and the specific grantmaking decision it will inform. Solves the common problem of learning activities that generate reports nobody uses because they were never tied to a decision. ## When to Use Invoke this skill when the user asks to: - Build or refresh a learning agenda for a strategy, initiative, or portfolio - Design an evaluation or learning plan tied to strategic priorities - Turn a foundation strategy or theory of change into learning questions - Connect evaluation activities to specific grantmaking decisions - Prioritize which learning questions to invest in with limited evaluation budget - Prepare a learning agenda to socialize with program staff, leadership, or the board ## Inputs Required Before starting, collect: - **Strategy area or portfolio**: The initiative, program area, or strategy the learning agenda serves - **Strategic priorities or goals**: What the foundation is trying to change or achieve - **Theory of change or key assumptions**: The causal logic and the assumptions most in doubt (if available) - **Decisions on the horizon**: Upcoming grantmaking or strategy decisions this learning should inform (e.g., renewal, pivot, scale, sunset) - **Time horizon**: Planning period for the agenda (e.g., 12 months, 3 years) - **Evaluation capacity**: Internal staff, external evaluators, budget range, or data infrastructure available - **Audience for findings**: Who will use the learning — program officers, leadership, board, grantees, field If theory of change or capacity details are missing, infer reasonable assumptions from the strategy and note them explicitly. ## Instructions ### Step 1: Surface Candidate Learning Questions Derive learning questions from three sources, working across all of them: - **Theory of change assumptions**: For each major causal link, ask "what would we need to see to believe this is working?" The riskiest, least-evidenced assumptions become the strongest question candidates. - **Upcoming decisions**: For each decision on the horizon, ask "what do we need to know to make this well?" Reverse-engineer questions from the decision. - **Strategic uncertainties**: Where is leadership genuinely unsure — about approach, context, grantee capacity, or field readiness? Organize candidate questions into four types: - **Implementation questions**: Are grants and activities happening as intended? - **Effectiveness questions**: Are activities producing the intended outcomes? - **Contribution questions**: How much is the foundation's role driving observed change vs. other factors? - **Strategic questions**: Should the strategy itself change — approach, allocation, or scope? Aim for 12–18 candidate questions before prioritizing. ### Step 2: Prioritize the Question Set Score each candidate on three dimensions (High / Medium / Low): - **Decision relevance**: Is a real decision waiting on this answer? - **Uncertainty**: How much genuine doubt exists? (Questions we already know the answer to are not worth funding.) - **Feasibility**: Can we credibly answer it given capacity and timeline? Select 5–8 priority questions. Favor questions that are high on decision relevance AND high on uncertainty. Explicitly park lower-priority questions in a "not now" list so they aren't lost. ### Step 3: Specify Evidence Needed Per Question For each priority question, define: - **What evidence would answer it**: The specific data, observations, or perspectives required - **Evidence standard**: How rigorous the evidence needs to be to support the decision — a renewal at scale demands more than an early directional read - **Whose perspective matters**: Grantees, participants, community members, field experts, staff - **What "good enough" looks like**: The threshold that lets the decision-maker act with confidence ### Step 4: Match Methods to Questions Assign a method appropriate to each question type and evidence standard. Do not over-engineer. - **Implementation questions**: Grantee reporting, site visits, dashboard/output tracking, structured check-ins - **Effectiveness questions**: Outcome tracking, pre/post measurement, comparison or benchmark analysis, developmental evaluation - **Contribution questions**: Contribution analysis, process tracing, key informant interviews, outcome harvesting - **Strategic questions**: Landscape scans, expert convenings, portfolio reviews, sensemaking sessions For each, note the method, the likely data source, and whether it runs internally or needs an external evaluator. ### Step 5: Sequence the Timeline Lay out a phased timeline across the planning horizon: - **Phase 1 — Foundation-setting**: Baseline data, method design, evaluator selection - **Phase 2 — Active learning**: Data collection and interim reads on time-sensitive questions - **Phase 3 — Synthesis and decision**: Sensemaking, findings integration, and delivery timed to arrive before each linked decision - Anchor each question's key milestones to the decision it informs — evidence that arrives after the decision is wasted. ### Step 6: Link Findings to Grantmaking Decisions For each priority question, write a one-line decision link: "This finding will inform [specific decision] by [date] by helping us [judgment to be made]." Define a lightweight sensemaking cadence — who reviews findings, how often, and how conclusions get translated into portfolio action. Close the loop: name where learning will re-enter the strategy. ## Output Format - **Structure**: A prioritized learning agenda table (one row per priority question with question, type, evidence needed, method, timeline, linked decision), followed by supporting narrative sections - **Length**: 900–1,400 words - **Format**: Structured document with a central table plus prose sections; parked questions as a short list - **Sections**: Learning agenda overview → Prioritized question table → Prioritization rationale → Methods and capacity summary → Phased timeline → Decision links and sensemaking cadence → Parked ("not now") questions - **Tone**: Evaluation officer — rigorous, decision-focused, plain-language; skeptical of learning-for-its-own-sake ## Quality Checklist Before delivering output, verify: - [ ] The agenda contains 5–8 priority questions, each tagged by type (implementation / effectiveness / contribution / strategic) - [ ] Every priority question has a named method matched to its evidence standard — not a default "we'll evaluate it" - [ ] Every priority question has an explicit link to a specific grantmaking decision and date - [ ] Prioritization rationale references decision relevance and uncertainty, not just interest - [ ] Timeline milestones land before the decisions they inform, not after - [ ] A "not now" parked-question list is included so deprioritized questions are preserved ## Notes - The most common failure mode is a learning agenda with too many questions and no decisions attached — a tight agenda of 5 decision-linked questions beats a comprehensive one of 20. - Match method rigor to the stakes of the decision; early directional questions do not need randomized designs, and high-stakes scale decisions should not rely on anecdote. - Build in sensemaking as a scheduled activity, not an afterthought — findings that are collected but never collectively interpreted rarely change grantmaking. - Revisit the agenda when strategy shifts; a learning agenda is a living document, not a one-time deliverable. --- ## How to use this skill This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top. **Installing in Claude Code:** - `~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects) - `/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills) Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register. **Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:** 1. 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