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

From 2010 to 2014, Scaling What Works was a multi-year learning initiative of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) to expand the number of grantmakers and public sector funders who are working together to grow the impact of high-performing nonprofit organizations. Through the Initiative, GEO offered training, networking opportunities, and a host of tools and resources to better equip grantmakers to help nonprofit organizations to plan, adapt and grow their impact. From 2011 to 2014, GEO engaged Informing Change to evaluate the progress,… Learn more

In 2008 the Jim Joseph Foundation invested $10 million to create and develop new specialty camps for Jewish teens, using the concept of an incubator for a small cohort of camp entrepreneurs.  The Incubator was entrusted to the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC), which took on the challenge to help create new summer camps that would attract Jewish teens not attending other Jewish camps. In 2009, the Jim Joseph Foundation engaged Informing Change to design and implement a multi-year evaluation… Learn more

Published in the Clinic Leadership Institute's seventh year, this dashboard showcases how the program continued to develop individual leaders, strengthen sponsoring organizations and bolster California’s community health centers system so it will thrive for years to come. In the evaluation findings, highlighted by Informing Change in a data dashboard and short deck, the program delivers solid and consistent results within a changing and challenging health care context, including the implementation of health care reform. The longitudinal, mixed-method evaluation follows the program’s first… Learn more

In 2011, Repair the World commissioned the first major assessment of the state of volunteering in the Jewish not-for-profit community. A group of New York University graduate students from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service designed and distributed the survey, resulting in over 200 responses. Informing Change then analyzed this data to produce a brief report of key findings for Repair the World and the broader Jewish not-for-profit community. These results helped to establish important baselines and identify… Learn more

As California faces the challenges of an evolving healthcare landscape and the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there is an unprecedented need for a committed and adaptable network of leaders in the community health centers field. To meet this need, Blue Shield of California Foundation has 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 five cohorts of participants from… Learn more

In January 2012, 13 community health centers throughout California received one-year “seed” funding and support to develop innovative ideas, support “out of the box” thinking and test new solutions to common problems in health care. The Center for Care Innovation and Blue Shield of California Foundation engaged Informing Change to conduct an evaluation of this pilot program called the Community Health Center Innovation Challenge. This document highlights key learnings about innovation that were drawn from a larger evaluation of the… Learn more

On behalf of the Jim Joseph Foundation, Informing Change collaborated with Rosov Consulting to conduct a body of research around teen education programs, identifying leading efforts inside and outside of the Jewish world that are engaging young people in experiences that are relevant, meaningful and ongoing. Twenty-one programs were chosen for inclusion in a scan of programs, including eight Jewish programs for teens and two for young adults, ages 20–40, along with eleven secular and other faith-based programs for teens… Learn more

For the past few years, healthcare administrators and providers have been getting ready for the Affordable Care Act by re-examining and making changes to their current systems. They are preparing for an influx of newly insured patients, attempting to position themselves as providers of choice within their communities and working on developing health homes and accountable care organizations. The Blue Shield of California Foundation believes that integration and coordination of services across the safety net is critical to achieving a… Learn more

The Nadiv Program (Nadiv) is an innovative pilot made possible by a partnership between the Jim Joseph Foundation and the AVI CHAI Foundation and is operated by The Foundation for Jewish Camp. The collaborative Nadiv partnership created six new Jewish educator positions, Nadiv Educators, which are shared between Jewish summer camps and schools. In these memos, Informing Change documents and summarizes the story of Nadiv and offer key learnings from its development and early implementation. The first memo, The Nadiv Story,… Learn more

Jewish Student Connection (JSC) aims to serve as a catalyst for Jewish teens to take ownership of their Jewish future by creating in-school educational experiences in public and private high schools. JSC’s student-run clubs provide opportunities for teens to build community, learn about Jewish history and Israel, and gain access to the Jewish community outside their high school. In 2010, three national and regional funders engaged Informing Change to assess the programmatic and organizational growth of JSC in four regions:… Learn more

Over the past four years, the Center for Care Innovations (formerly the Community Clinics Initiative) has supported creative ways of promoting health in underserved communities through their Networking for Community Health program. CCI, through generous support from The California Endowment, offered grants and non-monetary supports to community clinics across California to build community networks and enhance the capacity of those working within the networks to improve community health. This report provides an overview of CCI’s Networking for Community Health program,… Learn more

The Blue Shield of California Foundation and the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco launched the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program to prepare emerging leaders to move into executive positions. But how do the learnings from a structured leadership program translate to the unpredictability and complexity of participants’ day-to-day work in health centers? In this report, Informing Change examines how program benefits spread from participants to their organizations through their customized leadership projects… Learn more

The Pipeline Project offers the 21st Century Fellows Program to managers of color working at LGBT human rights and advocacy organizations with the intention of retaining and advancing these fellows in the field. The year-long leadership program aims to: build fellows’ leadership skills through a Rockwood Leadership Institute curriculum, create lasting peer networks, facilitate fellows’ advancement into executive positions and support their work to build stronger organizations. The program is supported by the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, the… Learn more

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce (the L.A. Chamber) is one of the nation’s oldest and most prominent regional business advocacy organizations. In June 2011, the L.A. Chamber received a grant from the Walmart Foundation to provide summer employment opportunities for underserved 16- to 21-year olds in Los Angeles. Through this grant, the L.A. Chamber partnered with civic and nonprofit organizations to offer summer work opportunities for 500 youth. The L.A. Chamber engaged Informing Change to evaluate its implementation… Learn more

The Blue Shield of California Foundation is partnering with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco to design and implement the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program. This intensive, 18-month program prepares emerging leaders to move into executive positions within five to eight years in order to sustain a strong and vibrant community clinics field in California. Informing Change has conducted a mixed-method, longitudinal study focusing on the impacts of the program since its… Learn more

As part of the evaluation of the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI)’s Networking for Community Health (NCH) program, Informing Change is examining how community clinics strengthen their working relationships with both traditional and non-traditional partners to promote community health. This report focuses on a sub-set of NCH projects that focus on “getting to the roots” of health problems in their communities by identifying and addressing upstream causes of ill health and focusing on prevention. In this report we examine the NCH… Learn more

In 2008, the Community Clinic’s Initiative launched a $1.6 million effort, the Community Health Organizing Project, to support statewide and regional advocacy efforts around health care reform and budget issues. The Project provided funding to the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) and 15 regional clinic networks working to bring more diverse voices, particularly clinic staff and patients, into health-related discussions occurring in California. This brief describes the strategies that grantees undertook to engage more clinic staff and patients as health… Learn more

Shasta Community Health Center (SCHC) engaged with Informing Change to assess the effectiveness of its Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Scribe Model, which utilize scribes to enter medical information into EHRs during patient visits. This report looks at the impact of this demonstration project on clinician and patient satisfaction with the process, patient visit efficiency and flow, clinician productivity, fiscal impact on the clinic as well as particularly important scribe and clinician characteristics that contribute to the model’s success. Learn more