| Session Title: Preparing for Funding Threats in Tough Economic Times: Early Childhood Initiative Perspectives From North Carolina and California |
| Multipaper Session 248 to be held in Ventura on Thursday, Nov 3, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM |
| Sponsored by the Pre-K - 12 Educational Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Michael Bates, Mosaic Network, mbates@mosaic-network.com |
| Abstract: In the world of multisite, non-profit initiatives, much attention has been put into strategic and evaluation planning to ensure that funders and other stakeholders understand the theoretical links between funding decisions and resulting initiative outcomes. In addition, advances in technology have greatly enhanced direct service providers' ability to collect, manage, store, and share data about program performance and outcomes. But has this abundance of data equated to quality information to help inform decision making at the initiative level and align funding priorities? Especially amid pervasive budget crisis and political scrutiny, it becomes even more critical to examine the degree to which the data we collect informs the tough fiscal choices funders face. In this presentation, we will explore these issues using two community early childhood initiatives as case studies, and discuss tools and strategies to engage stakeholders in meaningful conversations about evaluation information. |
| Preparing for Funding Threats in Tough Economic Times: A Funders' Perspective From a Smart Start Initiative in North Carolina |
| Linda Blanton, Partnership for Children of Cumberland County, lblanton@ccpfc.org |
| More than ever, organizations today are looking for practical ways to measure their impact. How can you use performance data to inform strategy? Communicate results to key stakeholders? Allocate resources more efficiently? Ensure staff accountability? Benchmark and continuously improve? Raise funds and justify your budget? In this case study of a local Partnership for Children in North Carolina, we will explore these questions, and discuss the issues, promises, and challenges associated with moving from traditional service silos to an integrated, unified collaborative system. Specifically, we will discuss how to direct and manage for impact, how to refine and focus the data capture process, and how to produce accurate and timely intelligence. We will also discuss strategies and challenges with utilizing this intelligence wisely to ensure we stay true to our mission when faced with drastic funding cuts. |
| Preparing for Funding Threats in Tough Economic Times: A Funders' Perspective From a First Five Initiative in California |
| Pedro Paz, First 5 Santa Barbara, ppaz@co.santa-barbara.ca.us |
| The lingering budget crisis in the state of California has further increased the possibility and severity of funding reduction in various state initiatives. This includes increased pressure to reduce spending in the state's Early Childhood Initiatives, including First 5 of California. In this presentation we will offer a case study on how we are using our ten-year investment in evaluation and data in our funded initiatives to make decisions with further cuts in already diminished funding. Specifically, we will present an overview of our evaluation and data collection efforts in the last 10 years. Then, we will present how we are using these results as decision makers at the organizational funding level to re-align our funding priorities in the anticipation of further cuts to our revenues. |
| Preparing for Funding Threats in Tough Economic Times: Examining the "Data" in Data-based Decision Making |
| Prashant Rajvaidya, Mosaic Network, prash@mosaic-network.com |
| As implementers of large-scale data systems across a number of multisite initiatives, we have successfully met the challenge of how we collect complex data across a variety of diverse programs and put it into the hands of decision makers in real-time. Increasingly, however, we are faced with the problem of having too much data, with a need to distill it into useful information, as illustrated in these two case studies. This presentation will focus on how we make both the data and the presentation of data more relevant to the kinds of decisions stakeholders need to make. Specifically, how do we design data collection components, integrate third-party data, and incorporate quantitative and qualitative information to maximize data utilization? We'll address design principles and practices that engage stakeholders in conversations about evaluation data, and discuss our experiences with a variety of useful presentation tools-dashboards, balanced scorecards, reports, and presentations. |