Overall Effectiveness Evaluation of C&A Foundation

14 December 2020

In 2019 C&A Foundation commissioned this independent Overall Effectiveness Evaluation (OEE) of its programmatic and operational effectiveness to inform its work to achieve its vision with a clear understanding of its past performance. The OEE assessed the foundation results across the signature programmes and organisation.

The OEE found that the foundation achieved an encouraging set of results across the programmes and particularly in circular fashion, materials (organic and sustainable cotton) and working conditions. In doing so, it established itself as a credible systems actor in helping the fashion industry towards transformation. However, the work to transform the fashion industry is still at the nascent stage.

The OEE found that as an organisation, improvement was required in grant-making operations, governance, research and learning inter alia. This has provided significant input into the design of the Laudes Foundation.

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Facts:

Duration: 2014/15-2019/20

Geographic region: Global

Recommendations and Action Plan

Recommendation	Management Response	Action Planned	Expected Completion Date
Close the brand association between C&A Foundation and C&A business and redefine the relationship through a partnership agreement, clear partnership mechanisms and joint initiatives.	Accepted	The recommendation confirmed our ongoing development of Laudes Foundation (started before this evaluation was initiated) and the importance of its establishment as a private foundation, not branded with business. As a new part of the Brenninkmeijer family enterprise, Laudes Foundation builds on six generations of entrepreneurship and philanthropy and stands next to the COFRA businesses and the family’s other private philanthropic activities, including Porticus, Good Energies Foundation and Argidius Foundation.	Completed
Remove the Strengthening Communities programme from the foundation portfolio and transfer it to C&A business for integration into its corporate social responsibility strategy and portfolio.	Accepted	The Strengthening Communities work, including humanitarian assistance, employee engagement and volunteering, which has been highly valued, especially by C&A employees and volunteers, has ceased to be funded and led by the foundation. The C&A businesses assumed ownership (and in Brazil, Instituto C&A remains to lead activities in that market) and are receiving an allocation of funding from COFRA for employee-driven philanthropy as of January 2020. This may result in some of these important programmes changing and/or ending. The C&A business recognises that these programmes have had a tremendous impact in inspiring its business colleagues and contributing to local communities. The business will develop its approach to continue such employee-driven philanthropy in a way that is aligned with its objectives and priorities.	Completed
Formalise the strategic levers and orient philanthropic engagement to more effectively enable systems change by building partnerships and deploying human, financial and other resources in complex and strategically complementary ways that activate them.	Accepted	This recommendation has informed the development of the Laudes Foundation strategy, which has since sharpened the strategic levers in order to address the dual challenges of climate breakdown and deepening inequality. Laudes Foundation’s new Theory of Change reflects these refined approaches.	By end of 2020
Maintain and expand the strategic use of the “hotspot” approach in all programmes, combined with anelaborated systemschange perspective that includes support for policy initiatives. The foundation would thus position its work for direct impact on specific locales, beneficiaries and organisational systems while deploying a strategy for shifting the underlying and enabling systems.	Partially accepted	The recommendation has partially informed and provided inspiration for how Laudes Foundation focuses on particular industries in specific geographies in order to influence the broader system. However, we are not using a “hotspot approach” to frame our strategic choices, as it is too narrow and connotes a geographical foci which does not fully reflect Laudes’ positioning.	By end of 2020
Orient a portion of the C&A Foundation programme, partner and communications resources to intentionally engage directly and indirectly with citizens and consumers, convening multiple and diverse actorsaiming toincreaseglobal awareness andalterthe fashion narrative to change mindsets of citizens, consumers, brands and other key actors.	Partially accepted	The recommendation has partially informed the Laudes Foundation work on narrative change across fashion, finance and built environment. Furthermore, we have reorganised our communications function to strengthen the foundation’s influence role (e.g., communications now includes both advocacy and changing the narrative). This team is working cross-functionally, ensuring that teams – programmatic, enabling and operations - have the tools they need for influence and, importantly, ensuring that Laudes Foundation is consistent in our external messaging to influence citizens, policy makers and industry stakeholders. This function will continue to employ the business partner approach, in order to best serve the needs of the various teams.	By end of 2020
Adjust the global structure of the foundation to improve synergies between programme teams in specific geographies and overcome programmaticsiloing. Repurpose the Brazil, India and Hong Kong offices as regional offices for Latin America, South Asia and East Asia, with oversight over other local offices in each region. As work expands in other regions, consider the merits of further expansion and staffing.	Rejected	This recommendation was made in order to increase communication and collaboration across programmes. While we have not restructured our operations on a regional basis, we have, via Laudes Foundation’s five-year strategy, designed integrated outcomes which push all teams – programmatic and enabling – to work together. At the same time, we have maintained country and industry foci of offices in Bangladesh, Brazil, Hong Kong and India for our fashion industry work (which, because of the small number of countries in which we operate, do not require regional offices).	Completed
Revise grant-making and partnership modalities to more effectively advance the foundation’s drive for effective and sustainable results. Make larger and longer lasting grants. Provide a higher proportion of financial support as core support to individual organisations as part of an intentional field-building strategy in specific fields and geographies. Continue providing and enabling non-monetary assistance, including through peer learning processes.	Accepted	During 2020, we have comprehensively revised our grant-making processes, drawing on the evaluation findings and the Partner Perception Report. We will, where appropriate, be offering core and general operating support to trusted partners as part of our strategy to assist mission aligned partners in systems change work. Throughout 2020 we have provided greater flexibility and non-monetary assistance to our partners, both as part of normal operations and in response to COVID-19 (via our Emergency fund and non-financial support to partners). We have also established a dedicated “learning fund” to enable partner peer to peer learning.	By mid-2021
Take a clear and detailed stance ongender, equity and inclusionprogrammatically and organisationally, complement it with an operational strategy that provides solid, coherentimplementationguidance to all staff and partners.	Accepted	Gender, Equity and Inclusion (GEI) is key to Laudes’ work in addressing climate and inequality across its chosen industries and thus is tightly integrated into our strategy and Theory of Change. Furthermore, we re-positioned GEI as part of the Effective Philanthropy function in order to give it more significance in our grant-making, operations and evaluation. This has included recruiting two full-time staff members to provide internal and external (to partners) guidance on GEI (from 1st quarter of 2021).	By mid-2021
Restructure foundation governance to ensure its continuing legitimacy, and to more appropriately reflect its intended positioning and purpose as a transformative force for good, in line with its stated values. Adjust the leadership structure to build a nimbler organisation.	Accepted	Laudes has taken into account the need to improve the diversity of its governance by recruiting further externals to its various governance committees, complementing the expertise and skills of the shareholders. In addition, the creation of a management team, which holds joint accountability for the foundation’s success, has enabled Laudes to have more effective decision-making.	By end of 2020
Reorient the Communications and Effective Philanthropy functions, as well as Research, to align with the foundation’s systems change ambitions.	Accepted	Per above, we have restructured the communications function accordingly. Effective Philanthropy has been re-organised, adding additional functions (oversight of research, a lead role in facilitating organisational learning, and the integration of GEI across everything the foundation does) to its already existing performance management and evaluation. Furthermore, Laudes’ measurement and learning approach has been revised to use rubrics and ratings which are better suited to assessing systems change.	By end of 2020
Improve grant-making efficiency by establishing guidelines on the desired amount of time and required processes for the review and processing of grant proposals through well-defined steps.	Accepted	This recommendation echoes the findings from our latest Partner Perception Report, and we are currently revising our grant-making process to reduce the burden on partners and enable better decision-making internally.These changes will be fully implemented by mid-2021 and we will track progress and ask for feedback through next Partner Perception Report in 2022.	By mid-2021

The options for management response are:

Accepted, meaning Fully Accepted: the organisation thinks that this recommendation should be completely implemented, and the response should show how and by when that is to be done.
Partially Accepted: the organisation thinks part of the recommendation is in error or not applicable and will not be responding to it, but accepts and will take action for the other part. Note that the reason for a partial acceptance must be given.
Not Accepted: the organisation thinks the recommendation is based on inaccurate findings or does not address the findings in the appropriate way. The reason for non-acceptance must be stated.