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Evaluation Capacity Building With Community-Based Organizations: Results of a Yearlong Planning Process and Curriculum
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| Presenter(s):
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| Srividhya Shanker, University of Minnesota, shan0133@umn.edu
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| Cindy Reich, University of Minnesota, reichcin@aol.com
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| Laura Pejsa, University of Minnesota, pejs0001@umn.edu
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| Jean A King, University of Minnesota, kingx004@umn.edu
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| Abstract:
As funders continue presenting grantees with reporting requirements of increasing scope and complexity, it is essential that nonprofit agencies have appropriate expertise and capacity to build meaningful evaluation into their work. Many community-based organizations, however, lack such capacity. In 2006, a Twin Cities coalition of 25 nonprofits, primarily community centers and others sharing settlement house values, first began discussing their capacity with respect to evaluation. One resulting goal was for evaluation to be embedded into each organization, for participating agencies to engage in intentional work to create and sustain overall organizational infrastructure and processes that would make quality evaluation and its use routine. In this paper, facilitators of the yearlong process that grew out of this goal share the results of two years spent working closely with participating organizations to clarify their understanding of Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB), help them assess their current evaluation capacity, and assist them in writing their ECB plans to implement the following year.
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Evaluating an Existing Community-level Initiative: Lessons From the YMCA of the United States of America
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| Presenter(s):
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| Andrea M Lee, YMCA of the USA, andrea.lee@ymca.net
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| Abstract:
Community-level initiatives designed to promote healthy lifestyles are growing in response to the prevalence of obesity in the United States. The YMCA of the USA launched its Healthier Communities Initiatives in 2004, convening local leaders from diverse sectors to change policies, environments, and systems within communities to increase physical activity and promote healthier eating. By the end of 2009, these Initiatives will encompass 132 communities from 40 states. The Initiatives are designed to provide community teams with tools, such as Y-USA's Community Healthy Living Index, to create broad and sustainable change.
Our work evaluating these Initiatives provides several lessons for other evaluators tackling initiatives with community components. These lessons include incorporating existing data into a comprehensive evaluation plan, integrating limited community-level data, and identifying the essential components of successful community collaborations. By sharing our process for establishing our evaluation plan, we hope to increase the base of community-level evaluation knowledge.
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Using Evaluation for Organizational Learning in an Evolving National Non-Profit Context: The Case of City Year
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| Presenter(s):
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| Gretchen Biesecker, City Year Inc, gbiesecker@cityyear.org
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| Tavia Lewis, City Year Inc, tlewis@cityyear.org
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| Dannalea D'Amante, City Year Inc, ddamante@cityyear.org
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| Ashley Kurth, City Year Inc, akurth@cityyear.org
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| Abstract:
City Year is a national service organization founded in 1988 that unites young people for a year of full-time service in urban communities. Each year, more than 1,500 17-24 year olds from diverse backgrounds work with underserved children as tutors and mentors in 18 cities in the U.S. In 2008, City Year established a more standardized model of school service (Whole School Whole Child) to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of children in their school environment, with an urgency framed by the high school drop-out crisis. This sharp focus on the context of K-12 education, and the era of outcomes-based accountability, has changed the context for evaluation activities and use for organizational learning across City Year. In this paper, we will share systems and example tools led by an internal evaluation department that allow us to deploy data collection and feedback in a large, national, education non-profit context.
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Context and the Serenity Prayer: The Evaluator's Role in Evaluation Capacity Building
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| Presenter(s):
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| Salvatore Alaimo, Grand Valley State University, salaimo@comcast.net
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| Abstract:
Evaluation capacity building (ECB) continues to gain prominence in the evaluation profession. This study examines the role of the evaluator as a key stakeholder in ECB. Twenty one-on-one interviews were conducted with evaluators of nonprofit human service programs coming from various backgrounds. Executive directors, board chairs, program staff and funders of nonprofit human service organizations were also interviewed for comparative analysis. Preliminary results provide some insight into how relationships and context impact the ECB process within the nonprofit, human services environment. They indicate that effective evaluation capacity building requires more than just funds, personnel and expertise. Some other important factors include leadership; value orientations; congruence among stakeholders; resource dependency; quality signaling; stakeholder involvement and understanding of roles; organizational culture; organizational learning; personal preferences; and utilization of available evaluation tools. This study suggests that evaluators should be cognizant of a variety of contextual implications to successfully engage in ECB.
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