LGBT

Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund joined the Arcus Foundation and the Gill Foundation to support a new initiative, the 21st Century Fellows Program (Program). The year-long Program provides leadership support to managers of color working at LGBT human rights and advocacy organizations and includes the creation of individualized leadership development plans, retreats, skills training and peer learning and networking opportunities.

BTW is collaborating with program staff to review, analyze and synthesize information collected during the Program’s inaugural year to document the program model, identify key findings and provide recommendations to inform the Program’s evolution.

The Respect for All Project: Preventing Prejudice Through Films and Training is a project of GroundSpark. The Project provides diversity training in schools through educational videos.

BTW worked for several years to assess the process and progress of the Project. We helped evaluate the impact of its first release, That’s a Family!, and used case studies to assess school-wide implementation of Respect for All’s Let’s Get Real project.

GroundSpark continues to build on BTW’s early guidance. It uses the tools and recommendations we developed to continuously improve its programs. As it expands its educational media offerings and refines the accompanying academic guides, GroundSpark is reaching audiences more effectively.

New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) has been providing theater-in-education programs to schools across California for more than 25 years. Productions include The Other Side of the Closet, Outspoken, Party Daze, and Gorgeous.

NCTC has a genuine interest in understanding the impact of its productions. The Center contracted with BTW to evaluate the effect of its educational theater programs on young people’s attitudes about intolerance, personal identity, acceptance and sexual assault.

BTW undertook the following:

• Measured the changes in attitude students underwent as a result of viewing the performances
• Measured their awareness of the opportunities and challenges in their school environment for supporting change
• Developed a series of post-performance instruments
• Helped build NCTC’s capacity to administer the surveys and analyze the results

NCTC is now able to document and understand the impact of its programs over time.

Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA), a national affinity group, hired BTW to shed light on how funders make their domestic and international HIV/AIDS funding decisions.

FCAA used this information to design support for current funders of HIV/AIDS-related services and programs and cultivate future funders.

BTW’s study was released as the publication, Voices from the Field: Remobilizing HIV/AIDS Philanthropy for the 21st Century.

When Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues wanted to assess the state of the LGBT community-foundation development field, it turned to BTW.

BTW conducted a needs assessment of 17 community foundations focused on LGBT communities. Using multiple research methods, we described the field and provided a perspective on the needs and capacities of each organization.

The results of our work were used to develop a plan of action for addressing the organizational capacity needs of foundations and within the field overall.