| Roundtable: Measuring Changes in Organizational Capacity: Recent Findings and Ideas for the Future |
| Roundtable Presentation 362 to be held in Conference Room 12 on Thursday, Nov 3, 1:35 PM to 2:20 PM |
| Sponsored by the Non-profit and Foundations Evaluation TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| Amy Minzner, Abt Associates Inc, amy_minzner@abtassoc.com |
| Kimberly Francis, Abt Associates Inc, kimberly_francis@abtassoc.com |
| Abstract: Organizational capacity building has become an accepted mechanism to increase the quality and quantity of services delivered by nonprofit organizations. While anecdotal information abounds about capacity building's effectiveness, rigorous evaluations have been limited. Capacity building is difficult to evaluate, which has constrained the number of evaluations completed. In this context, three recent evaluations of large-scale capacity building programs are notable. The roundtable presentation will present the evaluation designs and research findings of these evaluations (the Compassion Capital Fund Demonstration outcome and impact evaluations and the Communities Empowering Youth longitudinal outcome evaluation). It will also discuss the authors' measurement challenges, lessons learned, and ideas about moving the field forward in terms of measurement. The discussion portion of the roundtable will focus on participants' questions, experiences measuring capacity, ideas about defining a limited core set of organizational capacities to be used as indicators of broad capacity, and recommendations for future evaluation. |