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Session Title: Evaluating the Impact of Spending: A Foundation Case Study in Performance Assessment
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Panel Session 108 to be held in Mineral Hall Section E on Wednesday, Nov 5, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Non-profit and Foundations Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Ann St Claire,
ClearWay Minnesota,
astclaire@clearwaymn.org
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| Abstract:
ClearWay Minnesota, like many social minded granting organizations has broadened its definition of success from simply evaluating the outcomes of specific projects to assessing the extent to which their organizational vision and mission is being achieved through programmatic activities. ClearWay Minnesota was created in 1998 with a portion of Minnesota's tobacco settlement. With a mission to improve the health of all Minnesotan's by eliminating the harm caused by tobacco and a limited 25 year life span in which to do so, the need to aggressively assess progress in meeting its mission in measurable ways is critical. This panel will present a case study of organizational evaluation at the project, strategic plan, and lifetime goal levels. The overall theory of change that supports the multi-layered organizational evaluation plan will also be discussed. Panelists will describe how these elements evolved and come together into a comprehensive, yet manageable plan for ClearWay Minnesota.
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Part I: The Evaluation Structure and Its Strategic Implications
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| Sara Peterson,
LarsonAllen,
speterson@larsonallen.com
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Sara A. Peterson, JD, of LarsonAllen currently leads the external evaluation team for ClearWay Minnesota. Her evaluation experience includes work with nonprofits, foundations, and state funders. Like her work with ClearWay Minnesota many of the projects required tiered assessment tracking the progress of individual grantees relative to their grant goals while at the same time tracking the collective work of participants toward larger program goals and the strategic goals of the funding organization. In this session, she will introduce the ClearWay Minnesota evaluation structure and its logic model. With this as the starting point for discussion she will discuss strategic-level evaluation for the organization and the long-term outcomes it has developed. Throughout, she will relate this evaluation structure with her experience in other settings.
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Part II: Assessing the Grants and Granting Success
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| Ann St Claire,
ClearWay Minnesota,
astclaire@clearwaymn.org
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- Ann W. St. Claire, MPH, Research Program Manager of ClearWay Minnesota currently oversees the organizational evaluation. Her evaluation experience includes work with individual projects and at the programmatic level. In this session, she will describe the purpose, process, and usefulness of the Report Card evaluation for individual projects. The Report Card system was established to measure the performance of each funded project to achieving the greater organizational goals. This system is used to assess grant making successes and challenges on an annual basis, contributes to measuring strategic plan outcomes, and also informs future grant making priorities.
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Discussion: Adapting to Other Contexts
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| Barbara Schillo,
ClearWay Minnesota,
bschillo@clearwaymn.org
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- Barbara A. Schillo, PhD, Director of Research and Evaluation at ClearWay Minnesota will end the presentation with a brief discussion of how the model and tools discussed in this presentation can be adapted and used in similar organizations. She will facilitate a discussion with the audience to help answer questions and share our collective experiences in similar organizational evaluation efforts.
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