Lessons from the Field - Seer Consulting

Evaluation of Capacity Building: Lessons from the Field
Part III: Putting it Together
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• What have we learned?
• Is what was learned meaningful?
• Can we say this capacity-building intervention
has made the organization more effective yet,
or is this evaluation a “step” in demonstrating
longer-term outcomes?
• What is still missing? (For instance, you may
have learned that a capacity-building program
worked well with your consumers, but does it
have broader implications for the field? Is
someone else in your region or state or in the
country using a similar “theory of change?”
Can you create a comparative study to demonstrate
how the “theory” works, what the shared
outcomes are even when the context is
different, or what outcomes are not present
when the context changes?)
7 Innovate and act again. Based on reflection,
decide what further evaluative steps to take
for your capacity-building program. This could
range from maintaining the same level of evaluation
over time to raising funds for a third-party
evaluation or working with colleagues to develop
comparative studies.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FIELD
(NONPROFITS, CAPACITY BUILDERS,
FUNDERS)
✔ Include nonprofits in the discussion
and design of evaluation of their own
capacity building.
Work to close the information and knowledge gaps
from all sides of the equation—nonprofit, funder
and capacity builder. Capacity builders should
continuously gather the perspective of the
nonprofits they serve through assessment, evaluation
and simply by asking: What do you need? How
can we do better?
The nonprofit perspective on its own capacitybuilding
efforts has been under-represented in
evaluations of these efforts. Paul Light’s recent
research captured in Pathways to Nonprofit Excellence
begins to highlight what nonprofit leaders see as
capacity that strengthens organizations—with a
focus on leadership and appropriate funding for
general operating and capacity.
✔ Support intermediaries to work with
networks of mission-aligned or geographically
based nonprofits to build capacity
and measure effectiveness.
National and regional intermediaries, whether
focused on a particular nonprofit field or a
geographic area, should be supported to provide
technical assistance to the field they represent in the
areas of assessment, technical assistance and evaluation.
Intermediaries can help their own fields
identify characteristics of effectiveness that can be
adjusted locally. These intermediaries can then help
their specific fields identify how to evaluate effectiveness
using locally described indicators for
success. Intermediaries should themselves be measured
by their success on behalf of the nonprofits
they represent. (See Case Studies, Part IV.)
✔ Consider general operating support and
support for infrastructure and capital as
core strategies of capacity building.
Recent studies on capacity building or organizational
effectiveness reiterate this recommendation
that foundations refocus on general operating
support as a strategy for capacity building. A focus
on specialized program funding has withered
support of the functional areas of nonprofits. Yet, at
just 7.2 percent of giving, general operating
continues to be one of the smallest categories of
foundation grantmaking. Resources are one of the
key legs for improving capacity (Connolly and
Lukas). One approach, used in Cleveland’s
Neighborhood Progress, Inc. Project (funded by