Deeper Capacity Building for Greater Impact: Designing a Long-Term Initiative to Strengthen a Set of Nonprofit Organizations

Offers advice about how to plan, implement, and evaluate long-term, capacity-building initiatives -- sustained efforts to help a select group of nonprofit grantees reach a new level of effectiveness

Maximizing Foundation Effectiveness: Aligning Program Strategy, Organizational Capacity, Strategic Planning, and Performance Assessment to Achieve Success

This paper outlines a framework for increasing the philanthropic performance of an organization by focusing on strategic planning and development of tight logic models for the organization's programs. Strategic planning gets broken down into five steps: meta-planning, evaluation of the internal/external environment, establishment of priorities and vision, development of the strategic plan, and implementation/refinement. Though this paper stresses evaluation and meticulous planning, it finishes by imploring organizations to "allow room for serendipity, improvisation, and intuition in the process, too.

Driving Strategy for Social Impact

Authors Anne Sherman and Paul Connolly offer frameworks and advice to help guide nonprofits and funders through a strategy process. An effective strategy provides leaders with criteria for making important decisions and increasing the overall quality of their work

Strengthening Organizations to Mobilize Californians: Lessons Learned from a Major Initiative to Build the Capacity of Civic Engagement Nonprofits

From 2008 to 2010, twenty-seven community organizing nonprofits in California took part in an unusual and ambitious statewide initiative, Strengthening Organizations to Mobilize Californians (the "Initiative"). Funded by three leading foundations -- The James Irvine Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and David and Lucile Packard Foundation -- the Initiative sought to help nonprofits strengthen their organizations by focusing on such key areas as leadership, decision-making, communication and fundraising.The premise was that stronger organizations could better meet the needs of communities and give their residents more of a voice in civic life. Thus, through the Initiative each foundation sought to support its broader purpose, from improving educational opportunities and access to health care to increasing civic engagement and reforming California's governance system to better reflect the state's diversity.The Initiative specifically explored how different approaches to working with organizations supported change. How did peer exchanges compare with trainings that relied more on expert input? Would convenings enable the kind of networking that organizations need to develop and build momentum for their ideas? How much additional benefit would nonprofits derive from additional coaching time? Findings from the Initiative hold implications for other philanthropic staff members who seek to design, implement and improve capacity building.The insights and lessons presented in this report were distilled through an assessment process that included:A review of data gathered through Event Feedback Forms completed by participants at each activity and event over the course of the InitiativeA post-Initiative survey administered online to all participating organizations, with a response rate of 39 individuals representing 24 out of 27 organizations (89%)Two focus groups attended by 10 executive directors and senior staff from participating organizationsReflective conversations with the foundation partner

Increasing Cultural Participation: An Audience Development Planning Handbook for Presenters, Producers and Their Collaborators

Looks at how people-centered strategies for building public participation in high-quality arts programs can help institutions of varied disciplines and sizes to diversify, broaden, and deepen relationships with their communities

A Cluster Randomised Trial Evaluation of the Media Initiative for Children: Respecting Difference Programme

Evaluates trial outcomes of a preschool program designed to raise awareness of diversity issues, increase empathy, and promote inclusive behaviors among children, early childhood practitioners, and parents. Considers implications for further development

Building to Last: A Grantmaker's Guide to Strengthening Nonprofit Organizations

This paper provides an insight for funders regarding how to enhance the organisational effectiveness of their grantees and to provide capacity-building assistance

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Childhood Development Initiative's Mate-Tricks Pro-Social Behaviour After-School Programme

Mate-Tricks is an after-school programme designed to promote pro-social behaviour in Tallaght West (Dublin). Tallaght West has been designated as an area of particular social and economic disadvantage with high levels of unemployment. Mate-Tricks is a bespoke intervention that combines elements of two pro-social behaviour programmes: the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) and Coping Power Program (CPP). The programme is a one-year multi-session after-school programme comprising 59 children-only sessions, 6 parent-only sessions and 3 family sessions, with each session lasting 1½ hours.The intended outcomes of this programme are stated as follows in the Mate-Tricks manual: enhance children's pro-social development; reduce children's anti-social behaviour; develop children's confidence and self-esteem; improve children's problem-solving skills; improve child-peer interactions; develop reasoning and empathy skills; improve parenting skills; improve parent/child interaction. This evaluation reports on the pilot of this programme. Of the 21 outcomes investigated, 19 showed no significant differences between the children who attended Mate-Tricks and the control group. However, there were 2 statistically significant effects of the Mate-Tricks programme and 3 other effects that approached significance. The lack of effects and the few negative effects found in this study replicates findings in several recent studies of after-school behaviour programmes