There are dozens of organizational capacity assessment tools. How do you determine which one is right for your organization? We partnered with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Effective Philanthropy Group to scan the landscape of organizational capacity assessment tools and gather insights from organizational capacity professionals about the best ways to use them. A few things we learned: Adaptation is the norm.  No one tool is perfect, and adaptation helps ensure that people completing the tool understand its terminology… Learn more

In 2016, Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health Services Department (SCC BHSD) hired Informing Change to evaluate their School Linked Services initiative, currently implemented in 13 school districts. This initiative places at least one coordinator in each district to serve as the point of contact for students and families seeking referrals for wraparound services relating to behavioral and mental health, academic support, housing, food, immigration, and more. Ultimately, SCC BHSD wants to know how students receiving SLS are being impacted by… Learn more

Destiny Arts Center provides creative development to young people based in movement arts, including but not limited to dance, martial arts, and other performance or movement-based art forms—both in and out of school time—throughout the Bay Area. In 2016, Destiny Arts Center partnered with Informing Change to develop a theory of change which outlines Destiny Arts Center’s target constituents, strategies, and anticipated short- and long-term outcomes as results of those strategies. We used an evaluation of  Destiny Arts Center’s Artists-at-School Residency program at… Learn more

Building on the success of its first pilot cohort, the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) Specialty Camps Incubator II supported four new Jewish specialty camps in moving from merely ideas to actual, functioning camps. Funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation and the AVI CHAI Foundation, the Incubator supported these camps based on the premise that combining Jewish camp values with specialty programs could draw more young people into the world of Jewish camp. To continue to test and refine this premise,… Learn more

Over the course of its seven-year investment in improving after-school and summer learning programs (also known as expanded learning programs) for California’s K–12 students, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation invested in three linked strategies: creating models of high quality summer learning programs, cultivating a statewide network of technical assistance (TA) for expanded learning, and engaging stakeholders to champion expanded learning in local and statewide policy. Throughout this investment, Informing Change worked with the Foundation to understand how this theory of… Learn more

This executive summary shares top level findings from our final evaluation report of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s seven-year investment in expanded learning. Using three linked strategies—creating models of high quality summer learning programs, cultivating a statewide network of technical assistance (TA) for expanded learning, and engaging stakeholders to champion expanded learning in local and statewide policy—the Foundation made significant progress in raising awareness for summer learning loss, advocating for solutions through summer learning, cultivating a network of support for summer… Learn more

In this case study, we draw upon our evaluation findings from the Safety Net Analytics Program (SNAP) to explore how safety net healthcare organizations can successfully create and sustain data-driven cultures. The work of gaining staff buy-in—let alone training staff in different aspects of data analytics—building data infrastructure and using data to make decisions often happens in fits and starts and requires ongoing support and strategy from all levels of the organization. We share examples from SNAP participants and surface… Learn more

The Safety Net Analytics Program (SNAP), implemented by Center for Care Innovations and funded by California Health Care Foundation, was created to help safety net organizations develop a data-driven culture and to strengthen the people, processes and technology behind data analytics. SNAP engaged 20 grantee teams to grow and develop individual awareness and skills about data management practices with the ultimate goal of enhancing their organizations’ overall data analytics capabilities. This brief describes SNAP’s achievements and provides lessons for safety… Learn more

The team for Contra Costa Health System’s (CCHS) Safety Net Analytics Program (SNAP) had a clear goal in mind: use data to predict and address the needs of CCHS’s most high-utilizing, vulnerable patients. Meeting these high utilizers’ needs requires a range of providers to coordinate both their services and the patient data that accompanies those services. This case study details the steps CCHS’s SNAP team took to strengthen their data analytics capabilities to realize this vision, and outlines key takeaways… Learn more

The vast sea of data available to safety net healthcare providers is only helpful if staff can interpret and use that data. Enter dashboards, which enable data-sharing among staff—from frontline to administrative staff and across all departments and sites—in a consistent, visually accessible way. As one of the most-used strategies for participants in the Safety Net Analytics Program (SNAP), dashboards can guide safety net organizations’ staff and their practices to become more effective across business operations, clinical care and patient… Learn more

Expanded learning (i.e., after-school and summer learning) programs have immense potential to foster academic and social growth for students. To actualize this potential, a system of support in the form of technical assistance (TA) has emerged in California to help expanded learning providers sustain and improve their programs. Some expanded learning providers have made promising use of TA, while others have struggled to even access it. A collaboration with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, this brief explores the spectrum… Learn more

The early childhood years are a gateway into Jewish life for children and their families, and preschool is a prime time for young families to engage with the Jewish community. Seizing this opportunity, the Jewish Resource Specialist (JRS) Initiative endeavors to build the field of Jewish early childhood education, enhance families’ engagement and integrate Jewish curriculum in preschools through coaching, mentoring and resource support for JRS educators. JRS educators, already part of their preschools’ community fabric, deepen Jewish learning in… Learn more

As California faces the challenges of an evolving healthcare landscape, there is an unprecedented need for a committed and adaptable network of leaders in the community health centers field. To meet this need and strengthen the next generation of community health center leaders, The Blue Shield of California Foundation partnered with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco to administer the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program, training eight cohorts of participants from California… Learn more

Our case study on the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative shares what we have learned in studying the process and accomplishments of a group of local and national funders from ten different communities, all bound by a common overarching pursuit, but each with their own goals, strategies and structures. It details the Collaborative’s genesis (which was prompted by our study, Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens), membership benefits and key elements to the Collaborative’s early success. Ellen Irie, along with Collaborative member… Learn more

Over the years we’ve had both productive and challenging experiences working with other consultants on philanthropy projects. Reflecting on these experiences, and from talking with others in the field, we wrote an article for the Foundation Review to spark the conversation on how consulting partnerships, in supporting philanthropy, take different forms and have their own set of benefits and challenges. This infographic breaks down the article’s fundamental points. Ultimately, open communication on all levels—from clarifying power dynamics and relationships between funders, grantees and… Learn more

Funded by Blue Shield of California Foundation, the Clinic Leadership Institute’s New Executive Transitions (nEXt) program provides new community health center CEOs with knowledge, skills and networks to succeed in their positions. The year-long program consists of in-person program meetings, mentor/advisor relationships and ongoing informal networking. Informing Change’s evaluation of the nEXt program’s 2013-14 cohort shows that the program has led to enhanced leadership skills, improved networking skills and greater timely field knowledge for its participants. Read more nEXt evaluation… Learn more

In 2013, the MacArthur Foundation engaged Informing Change to evaluate one component of its Digital Media and Learning (DML) Initiative—the DML Competition—which identifies innovators and invests in prototypes of games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds, social networks, digital badge platforms and more in support of connected learning. Informing Change assessed the Competition’s goals, processes, and impacts on awardees, awarded projects, the DML landscape and the Foundation using a mixed-methods evaluation design. Through our evaluation, we found that participation in the Competition has… Learn more

In 2014, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program engaged Informing Change in partnership with Olive Grove to assess the effectiveness of the Foundation’s approach to support regranting intermediaries. The Foundation works with these regranting intermediaries to target San Francisco Bay Area small arts organizations, individual artists and communities or arts disciplines (e.g., folk and traditional arts) where the Foundation has limited capacity and experience. This exploratory examination revealed several key takeaways, including: From 2010 to 2013, Hewlett’s intermediaries regranted almost $7.4… Learn more

In fall 2012, a collection of Jewish funders—Jim Joseph Foundation, Leichtag Foundation, The Morningstar Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, Schusterman Family Foundation, and UJA Federation of New York—collaborated with Hazon to conduct the first national research study on experiences that integrate Jewish outdoor, food, and environmental education (JOFEE), focusing on immersive JOFEE programs lasting four days or longer. The Improve Group and Informing Change gathered and analyzed data to explore JOFEE programs, participants, and professionals. On March 10, 2014 Seeds of Opportunity: A National… Learn more

In 2012, Blue Shield of California Foundation launched the Executive Excellence program (Ex2), the most recent addition to the suite of Clinic Leadership Institute programs. Administered by UCLA Anderson Executive Education, Ex2 offers a range of instruction and supports to catalyze leadership and effectiveness among executive teams in California’s community health centers field. In the inaugural cohort of five health centers, the program demonstrated strong outcomes among participating teams (e.g., CEO, COO, CFO), stimulating better communication, enhanced collaboration, and more data-informed… Learn more