Over the past three decades, billions of federal, state, and local dollars have been deployed to support water infrastructure projects and other programs that reduce point and nonpoint sources of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. In order to improve water quality project grant making the EFC, funded by support from the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), conducted an analysis of Chesapeake Bay water quality projects to see if any trends emerged in terms of project characteristics that drive successful outcomes; identify any gaps in how funders collect evaluation data; and, recommend strategies for improving the impact of grant-funded programs and projects. The EFC analyzed and provided recommendations based off of 699 projects across two major Bay-wide funders. The major findings included the scale and scope of projects invested in across the bay as well as the needed for a more coordinated data collection effort in order to improve future program evaluation that will enable local and state leaders to make informed, data-driven resource allocation decisions.
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