This Evaluation Capacity Diagnostic Tool is designed to help organizations assess their readiness to take on many types of evaluation activities. It captures information on organizational context and the evaluation experience of staff and can be used in various ways. For example, the tool can pinpoint particularly strong areas of capacity as well as areas for improvement, and can also calibrate changes over time in an organization’s evaluation capacity. In addition, this diagnostic can encourage staff to brainstorm about how their organization can enhance evaluation capacity by building on existing evaluation experience and skills. Finally, the tool can serve as a precursor to evaluation activities with an external evaluation consultant.

Evaluation Capacity Diagnostic Tool by BTW informingchange is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://btw.informingchange.com/about/contact-us.

This evaluation brief outlines how the Community Clinics Intiative (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 efforts.

BTW’s recent work has included exploring 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 more effective at lower cost and with more effective collective action?

BTW prepared case studies to serve as learning tools for social change movement building in work with the Marguerite Casey Foundation. The Foundation supports community-based leadership and promoting grassroots activism.

BTW worked to evaluate and facilitate a cluster of eight grantee organizations:

1. Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy
2. Breakthrough Urban Ministries
3. Institute for Democratic Renewal/ Project Change
4. Interfaith Worker Justice
5. Labor/ Community Strategy Center
6. Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches
7. Radio Bilingue
8. South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations

Each case study revolves around the grantee organizations’ work on economic justice and community development issues. A sample case study is shared here; please contact BTW for other case studies