In the fall of 2007, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation commissioned Informing Change to assess the landscape of Jewish Service Learning. Informing Change examined the current capacity among Jewish Service Learning practitioners and the support required to expand that capacity. We also looked at the relevance of secular national service and other faith-based service traditions in defining the potential and development of Jewish Service Learning. This report summarizes that… Learn more

This evaluation brief outlines how the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI), a joint project of Tides and The California Endowment, has been successful in effecting broad and deep social change within the community-clinics field in California. In addition to a description of CCI’s impacts and the evaluation design, the brief discusses critical factors that emerged for achieving deep, systems-level changes, and offers some summary reflections. These factors and reflections can inform the design and implementation of other philanthropic initiatives and grantmaking… Learn more

During Informing Change’s multi-year evaluation of the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI), we observed that CCI was particularly effective in extracting knowledge and lessons while the evaluation was underway. This made their grantmaking more responsive and strategic. In this article, we identify five tactics that CCI used to ensure that the evaluation and its findings were real-time learning tools that could be employed right away. We also share how CCI’s unique approach to a widely accepted evaluation process has led to… Learn more

The Kaiser Permanente Community Clinic Partnership (the Partnership) is a collaboration of Kaiser Permanente (KP) in California and the state’s system of community clinics. KP contracted with BTW informing change to examine the Partnership experience within KP,  the clinic networks and individual clinics. The evaluation focuses on the Partnership’s first phase of support between 2002 and 2005, and examines the accomplishments of the Partnership, how the Partnership achieved these accomplishments and the central lessons learned. Learn more

Informing Change’s explored the issue of fiscal sponsorship; how the practice currently supports nonprofit sector work, how donors and funders perceive it, how it still holds untapped potential for public problem solving. Fiscal sponsorship—as it exists and as it could be—has a place in the independent-sector toolbox for the 21st century, but current perceptions are limiting its application and effectiveness. In this brief we suggest that fiscal sponsorship be considered within a larger question: How do we make the sector… Learn more

Informing Change’s evaluations often include structured experiences to help participants understand the process and what can be learned from it. In this article, Informing Change’s Director of Evaluation and Organizational Learning outlines key factors for successful learning communities and describes benefits of participation to funders. This article first appeared in LEARNING, the newsletter of Grantmakers for Effective Organization (GEO), in February 2007. Learn more

In 2005, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation initiated the Coaching and Philanthropy Project to assess the use of coaching within the nonprofit sector. Coaching is a powerful strategy for cultivating strong leadership and building effective organizations, and the Foundation sought to expand the use of coaching among nonprofits. Informing Change’s research identified substantial rewards for nonprofits prepared to use coaching as a tool for growth. These included The philanthropic sector’s support of coaching for nonprofit grantees The demand for coaching among… Learn more

Informing Change conducted an examination of 21 volunteer programs nationwide to assess the true cost of organizing a high-quality volunteer program. The study helped the field better understand the implications of the President’s Call to Service for the nonprofit sector. Read the results of the review and find out what it really takes to provide quality volunteer experience. 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

Over the last four years, Informing Change has partnered with the Health Forward Foundation (HFF, formerly the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City) to build a framework for evaluating the Foundation’s three portfolios: Safety Net, Mental Health, and Healthy Communities. Our team worked closely with each portfolio to construct and refine their theories of change, as well as develop relevant indicators and build reporting forms that capture grantee data in clear and meaningful ways. To prepare grantees for this… 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