Belinda Luke

This article reports on an evaluation study of Breast Cancer Trials, an Australian non-profit cancer research organisation, using the Payback Framework. The organisation’s impact over a 40 year period was assessed through a mixed methods design, assessing impact across the five dimensions of the framework: knowledge production, informing policy and product development, the research system, health and health sector benefits, and broader economic benefits. The evaluation found that Breast Cancer Trials created impact in each of these five traditional dimensions. Interestingly, findings highlighted the importance of a sixth dimension – social benefits, in particular psycho-social benefits, involving connections and supportive interactions for various individuals and communities. These benefits included and resulted from improved health literacy and mental health of patients’ family, and personal impact on researchers and others involved in clinical trials, representing a significant dimension for Breast Cancer Trials and potentially other organisations wishing to comprehensively evaluate impact. Impact evaluation is an ongoing endeavour and is strengthened by good design, stakeholder engagement, and accountability. We contend that using an extended Payback Framework to include a sixth dimension, social benefits , allows organisations to reflect more broadly on the significance, scope, and impact of their work, incorporating the wide range of impacts on various stakeholder groups.

In response to concerns regarding how disaster relief nonprofit organizations distribute financial donations, this paper explores individual donor giving, intent upon giving, and expectations subsequent to giving, in the context of the 2019/20 Kangaroo Island bushfires in South Australia. Adopting fundamental constructs from the theory of planned behavior, we examine why people give to natural disaster fundraising campaigns. We then compare donor intent and their expectations of nonprofits subsequent to giving, with nonprofits' actions and communication to consider how (un/met) expectations might impact on attitudes to future giving. A qualitative approach was adopted involving 14 semi‐structured interviews with individual donors (most of whom were geographically close to the disaster location), publicly available communication regarding the disaster, and e‐mail correspondence with the relevant nonprofits. Findings reveal the importance of closeness (geographical, emotional and psychological) to a range of factors influencing giving behavior. Contrary to extant literature that cautions a misalignment between donors' intent, expectations, and nonprofits' actions, this occurrence did not impact negatively on donors' satisfaction or attitudes towards future giving behavior. Implications extend to better understanding why donors give, their expectations following a natural disaster, and the multiple dimensions of donor closeness.

Purpose: This research explores how beneficiary-focussed evaluation operates as a mechanism of downward accountability in residential aged care (RAC). We examine the interplay between rights-based frameworks and care ethics, questioning whether Government reforms intended to promote residents’ agency translate into meaningful accountability in practice. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study was conducted in an Australian RAC facility, drawing on interviews with residents, family members, staff and management, as well as observations and document analysis. Residents’ experiences of evaluation are interpreted through the theoretical lenses of rights and care ethics. Findings: Beyond revealing tensions between rights- and care-based logics, findings highlight the limits of rights-based accountability and the challenges of enabling voice in contexts of dependency. Rights-based mechanisms are insufficient where beneficiaries lack the capacity or willingness to claim rights. While relational forms of accountability can support responsiveness, they remain ineffective in the absence of corresponding authority. Accountability mechanisms risk becoming symbolic when expressions of voice are recognised but not translated into response, highlighting responsiveness as fundamental to accountability. Originality/value: This research advances theory and practice in beneficiary evaluation and downward accountability by proposing a model of accountability that reconceptualises the rights/care relationship in contexts of constrained agency, moving beyond dominant framings of rights and care as distinct forms of accountability. Findings show how residents’ affective responses restrict rights enactment in care-based settings, helping to explain why rights-based frameworks weaken when not underpinned by relational, moral and emotional dimensions. The research proposes the potential for an independent intermediary to support the enactment of downward accountability.

This evaluation report reviews the outcomes from the Adapt for Impact program funded by Minderoo Foundation.

This article examines taxonomies and typologies as sensemaking processes to better understand identity and accountability in philanthropic foundations. While these organisations are established for public benefit purposes, public knowledge on them is limited, and concerns exist regarding their transparency, accountability and legitimacy. Challenges in the development of a taxonomy and typology as systematic processes of sensemaking are explored, providing nuanced insights into this organisational group’s identity and accountability. Publicly available data from two separate sources are examined as the basis for a taxonomy, and semi-structured interviews exploring accountability and identity provide the basis for a typology. This article highlights the importance of examining underlying commonalities as well as observable differences within a set of organisations, and exploring the interplay between the two. Collectively, findings from these sensemaking processes offer valuable insights into philanthropic foundations’ identity and accountability.

This paper uses strong structuration theory to examine how external and internal structures and in particular, position–practice relations influence credit unions' accountability praxis. Employing case study analysis in two Indonesian credit unions, primary data collection included 10 focus group discussions and 10 semi‐structured individual interviews, involving a total of 32 agents from within and outside the credit unions. In addition, strategic planning documents and annual reports of each credit union were examined and thematically analysed. Analysis initially focused on the quadripartite nature of structuration, and subsequently involved a more detailed focus on position–practice relations. Findings reveal agents' internal structures were more influential than external structures in determining the nature of accountability praxis adopted. Rather than conflicting, external and internal structures were aligned and supportive in enhancing accountability praxis. Underscored, however, is the importance of agents' position–practice relations in influencing ‘fit’ between agents' internal structures (capabilities) and the external structures within and outside of the organisation. This fit has important enforcement (and reinforcement) implications for accountability theory and practice, highlighting the recursive nature of (basic or comprehensive) accountability praxis in a lightly‐regulated environment. Close, collaborative position‐practice relations reinforce comprehensive accountability praxis, while distant, more transactional position‐practice relations reproduce limited or basic accountability praxis.

The giving journeys of individuals, relating to their life stories and life places, have been positioned in the literature as romanticized versions of self. This research adopts a theory of philanthropic identity narratives using a journey metaphor, and explores the role and journeys associated with establishing a giving structure in the form of a private foundation. Findings from interviews with managers and trustees of private philanthropic foundations undertaken in two phases, 7 years apart, show that establishing a foundation shifts the emphasis of a giving journey from being individual‐focused to philanthropy‐focused, facilitating a legacy of giving rather than self. This paper contributes to theoretical and practical understandings of philanthropic journeys by adding a foundation lens, highlighting the shift in emphasis between identity and action, where establishing a giving structure is less about an individual founder's identity and more about focused philanthropic activity, irrespective of what that particular focus may be.

Aim: This study evaluates the impact created by clinical trial investment and research undertaken by Breast Cancer Trials (BCT).Methods: The approach involved using the Payback Framework, and included a review of BCT archival information, public health data, a questionnaire sent to BCT members, individual interviews with key informants, a focus group with members of the organization's Consumer Advisory Panel, and case studies of select BCT trials. The evaluation assessed the evidence against the Payback Framework criteria: informing policy and product development, knowledge production, the research system, health and health sector benefits, and broader economic benefits.Results: Analysis using the Payback Framework revealed impact was created in each category and a range of positive outcomes were identified for various stakeholder groups. BCT is maximizing the impact of its research and contributing to a global pool of scientific knowledge by collaborating with over 100 institutions and 820 researchers, yet its benefits go beyond research contributions. Findings highlight strong financial returns from BCT's research program and that BCT has played an important role in enhancing the public perception of clinical trials by promoting participation in trials, educating and empowering participants, and communicating trial outcomes.Conclusion: BCT's clinical trials have had a significant impact on the prevention, detection, treatment, and management of breast cancer. Measuring and reporting impact can be resource intensive but support BCT in remaining accountable to all those invested in the organization and in breast cancer clinical trials, evidencing the multiple dimensions of payback resulting from the organization's research.

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