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Nonprofit Capacity Building Program
2010-2012 Summary
In 2010, the Corporation for National and Community Service awarded two-year grants totaling $1 million to five intermediary organizations through the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program. These organizations worked with small and midsize nonprofits in communities facing resource hardship challenges to develop and implement performance management systems. Research suggests that an established framework of performance management is the prerequisite and predictor of success for other aspects of nonprofit health such as financial planning and sustainability. Grantees provided recipients with organizational development assistance to establish procedures for measuring progress and improving performance towards intended outcomes leading to community impact.
Sponsor / Lead Organization Arizona Community Foundation Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston Minnesota Council of Nonprofits United Way of the Bay Area
University of Central Florida
Location Arizona Massachusetts Minnesota California Florida Cohort Size
(# of small/ mid-size
nonprofits) 15 15 58 (2 groups) 26 9
Project Goals Project SAM (Shared Asset Measurement) - worked with financial education services nonprofits over 2 years. Developed common performance measures Developed performance management system for agencies serving youth at high risk through intensive one-on-one services Provided Leadership Institute to develop professional capacity of nonprofit staff in Northeast, Northwest, and Central Minnesota over 9 months Built performance management and evaluation capacity of Spark Point Centers and other nonprofits providing economic opportunity services
Center for Public and Nonprofit Management worked with small grassroots nonprofits to develop performance measurement systems over the course of two years
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At the time of the grant close-outs the five grantees provided post program follow-up on three questions related to the
implementation of Performance
Management Systems at the nonprofits and the impact this implementation had on their services to beneficiaries. In total 82% of the nonprofits were implementing a
Performance Management System. Of those nonprofits implementing a
Performance Management System 60% had an increase to the number of beneficiaries receiving services and 67% had
improvement in the results/impact of the services provided to beneficiaries.
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Program Summary Highlights
Arizona Community Foundation
From 2010-2012, the Arizona Community Foundation (ACF) and its partners, the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits and FSG Social Impact Advisors, trained a select group of nonprofit
organizations on the concept of Shared Asset Measurement. The initiative was named Project SAM. The over-arching goal of Project SAM was to create a shared performance measurement system, specifically for organizations providing financial education and empowerment services to economically distressed communities throughout Arizona. This type of shared measurement system requires all participants to report on the same indicators using the same measures to compare performance, share knowledge and collaborate.
A cohort of 13 organizations was selected to participate in and make a two-year commitment to the design, development and deployment of this shared measurement system. These organizations represent a diverse group in terms of geography, population served and
programs offered. The cohort delivers programs such as Financial Literacy classes, one-on-one Financial Coaching, Housing counseling and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. Project SAM used Collective Impact as the implementation framework. The journey to design and build a shared measurement system began with in-depth training in the concepts of Logic Modeling. The group training was followed up with one-on-one coaching for each organization. Upon completion, each cohort member had developed logic models for their financial education and empowerment programs. The next step for the Project SAM cohort was defining and
developing the common shared indicators that all members will report on using the same measurement tool. As a result, the cohort agreed on seven short-term indicators to measure and track. The cohort then developed a data collection tool to measure these indicators. The tool includes demographic information as well as survey questions to measure knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on each indicator. Throughout this process, true Strategic Learning was beginning to take hold--not only within the cohort, but within their own organizations.
Members of the cohort are now actively forming new partnerships, exploring collaboration opportunities, and sharing resources as a result of their participation in Project SAM. As the Project SAM Learning Community continues to grow and develop, their shared vision remains clear. As one of the cohort members said, “We are collaborators creating complex solutions to address complex issues.”
Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston
From 2010 – 2012, the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston (BMA) provided capacity building services via the Capacity Building Institute to community and faith-based organizations in and around the Boston area that work with at-risk youth. Fourteen non-profit youth service agencies were selected for an intense two-year period with the hope of accomplishing 17 benchmarks. BMA identified these to help implement performance management
systems. Although the benchmarks seemed a little daunting to accomplish, the selected
agencies felt the correct ones were chosen. One agency, after being resistant to the concept of performance management for more than a decade, has since aligned its mission, program strategies and outcomes.
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As a result of the Capacity Building Institute, agencies, many for the first time, are now able to hold themselves accountable, have better involvement of their staff and board, and have the ability to track outcomes. The majority of agencies didn’t have a way to collect/manage data. Now management databases are in place to track such things as demographic makeup of clients and outcomes. The actual instrument used varies from each agency, but systems are now being utilized to their fullest potential and are producing the results each agency seeks. A sustainability strategy has been implemented with each of the 14 non-profit agencies
involved. The plan includes quarterly check- in meetings with BMA over the next year. As word spread about the Institute, BMA was able to involve 69 other agencies in various Capacity Building Institute trainings. Some of the training topics included: Outcome Measurement Plan, Salesforce Database overview, and Selecting the Measurement Tool that’s Right for You. BMA deemed the Capacity Building Institute a success, and with other interested non-profits wanting to participate, BMA is seeking funding for another cohort group to go through the
transformation.
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
In 2011 and 2012, 58 nonprofit leaders graduated from the Performance Management Leadership Institute, hosted by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits with significant funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service through the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program. These leaders, from small- and mid-sized nonprofits across Central and Northern Minnesota, participated in a nine-month program that focused on improving
organizational community impacts by offering training and support in (1) adaptive leadership, (2) nonprofit best practices, and (3) performance management improvement. At the end of the Institute, 55 of the 58 fellows reported that they have written plans including goals, objectives, target clients, and projected outcomes (compared to 36 pre-Institute). Additionally, 42 of the 58 fellows reported that they use data to improve service delivery, reward staff performance, and inform management decisions (compared to 19 pre-Institute). In over 200 distinct
measures, the graduates of the program cited significant improvements which will impact their nonprofit organizations and communities for years to come.
United Way of the Bay Area
The United Way of the Bay Area’s Nonprofit Capacity Building grant focused on performance measurement in Economic Opportunity nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project was called the Impact Learning Circle. Twenty-six nonprofits participated in the cohort Circle and many other organizations attended conferences and workshops. Each member of the Circle developed Work Plans and targets to learn to collect, manage and use data to improve their work. Members of the cohort participated in the Impact Learning Circle for two years. At the end of 2012, 515 participants learned about performance measurement through trainings and web based information. The responses to training were very positive (i.e. 96% stated they gained new knowledge applicable to their work). A high number of the cohort (Circle members) made significant progress in all of the CNCS mandatory indicators. Twenty-one of the 26 cohort members implemented Performance Management Systems. Eighteen of those indicated that
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the Performance Management Systems improved services to their beneficiaries. Every member of the cohort reported key success stories, many of which were recorded in short videos. These videos can be seen at http://www.uwba.org/news/2013/02/united-way-supports-the-bay-area-nonprofit-community/
University of Central Florida
In 2011, the University of Central Florida began a two-year program with significant funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service. The program was designed to educate and train community leaders from small grass-roots nonprofits across Central Florida. The program began with nine local non-profits, and eight non-profit organizations completed the two-year course. UCF focused on providing training and support in (1) nonprofit best practices and (2) performance management improvement. UCF designed personalized tools to assist the organizations in understanding and developing Performance Measure tracking. UCF provided these deliverables through a combination of formal classroom training, weekday seminars and “Director’s Roundtables” and personalized one-on-one technical assistance provided by Graduate Student interns. The instruments UCF developed were personalized to account for the sophistication of the organization along with individual and specific
requirements of the cohort’s individual partners. For example, an organization that serves clients with vision impairments customized their data entry spreadsheets to allow volunteers who were blind or vision-impaired to perform data-entry tasks using personalized software.
