Illustrate Your Impact Goals with Logic Model Heat Mapping July 24, 2017 By Marketing Admin The work you do in the social sector is likely unique in its mission and programs. As unique as it is, social sector organizations like yours share the common goal to “move the needle.” No matter your mission, it is important to ensure your activities are clearly aligned with your ultimate social impact goals. To that end, we have produced three videos that demonstrate how you can use logic model heat mapping to strengthen the alignment between your group’s mission and activities.
5 Things Foundations Say About Their Capacity July 6, 2017 By Marketing Admin Nearly 60 foundations – of all shapes and sizes – recently took the Foundation Core Capacity Assessment Tool (FCCAT), a self-assessment measure for foundations, to better understand their strengths and challenges. Based on the recent summary report, we break down the top five noteworthy things foundations had to say.
Be SMART: Designing Effective Media Campaigns (Stage 1) June 20, 2017 By Marketing Admin There are four key stages in the use of media. These stages include design, development, distribution and reflection. In this piece, we discuss the importance of design and the impact evaluation can have in this stage in creating a successful campaign, and subsequently detail the process.
Building Evaluation Capacity Across International Offices March 28, 2017 By Marketing Admin For NGOs with offices in a wide variety of geographic locations, establishing a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system that works for both the headquarters office and field offices can be a real challenge. If those offices operate in different countries, that challenge becomes even harder. Learn how Hand in Hand International (HiH), supported through Johnson & Johnson’s Healthy Futures evaluation capacity-building program, piloted a measurement framework in Eastern Africa, Afghanistan, and London that allows it to have a greater understanding of what is needed to achieve their desired impact and how that varies by region.
What Surprises Me about Human Rights Grantmaking February 15, 2017 By Marketing Admin When your job centers on helping funders assess needs, devise strategies, and manage and evaluate their grantmaking, you wish that every field would have a resource like Advancing Human Rights: Update on Global Foundation Grantmaking. Since IHRFG and Foundation Center launched this series four years ago—and added an interactive website three years ago—I have made regular use of these tools to understand levels of foundation engagement within and at the intersection of issues ranging from women’s rights in the Global South to environmental justice in the United States. This research has also been invaluable in helping the foundations I work with to see just how many peers and practitioners have aligned interests and could become partners in realizing their goals. That is why I was surprised when I sat down to read the 2017 Edition of the Advancing Human Rights report. I realized that in using these resources to answer my very specific, client-focused questions, I had been missing some findings and trends that are beginning to reshape my thinking about foundation support for human rights.
4 Tips for Culturally Responsive Programming December 16, 2016 By Marketing Admin I’ve always had an inherent appreciation for diversity – yet my training and work in the evaluation space has fostered even greater realization that diversity is a critical component to both program design and evaluation. In my work, I’ve had to assess how people are experiencing programs and whether those experiences match what was intended. Naturally, I’ve been exposed to and come to understand realities and points of view different than my own. I see this call for cultural responsiveness as being relevant to not only evaluators, but program staff as well…
Build Trust With A Purpose Statement December 8, 2016 By Marketing Admin As we enter a new era in US politics, there is increased pressure on companies to build trust with customers, and both deliver and communicate their broader value to society and their employees…How have companies been responding to this pressure?
How to Strengthen Your Family Foundation’s Impact November 30, 2016 By Marketing Admin As with all foundations, family foundations work to have a meaningful and measurable impact on social problems. But they also have a second, unique purpose: to serve as a unifying vehicle for multiple generations, and to provide opportunities for family members to share philanthropic interests. Establishing this unity can be accomplished by articulating a common purpose – be it a commitment to supporting a geographic locale, supporting a certain issue(s) (education, health), or advancing specific strategies (capacity building, research). In order to grow effectively and sustainably, a family foundation must learn where it fits in the larger “ecosystem” that influences – and is influenced by – the issues it seeks to support.
4 Key Stages for Measuring Your Media Outcomes September 26, 2016 By Marketing Admin What can media accomplish? What can it affect? These are questions funders often ask. Restating those questions from an evaluation perspective translates to: how can one measure the impact of media? To understand how to measure media, we must first understand the strategy behind media.
The Story of a TCC-er at Summer Camp August 19, 2016 By Marketing Admin I may not be unique. Like most people who work in or with the social sector, I have a personal drive to give back. But volunteering at a week-long summer camp gave me pause – and I will share with you how this experience reinforced how I embody TCC’s values – that is, a client-centered approach focused on learning, sustainable change, and resourcefulness.
Building a More Effective Community Approach June 23, 2016 By Marketing Admin Companies are developing their corporate citizenship approaches and strategies based on three primary drivers: aligning with their purpose; addressing an operational issue; and/or supporting the communities where they have operations and employees. Public media and high-profile stories surrounding companies and their corporate citizenship efforts tend to focus on the major programs and initiatives that the company has developed and promoted, such as Unilever’s Sustainable Living commitment (Purpose) or Starbucks’ focus on sourcing products responsibly (Operations). The approach to community, however, tends to be less developed…
Municipalities: The Missing Link To Social Sector Capacity Building June 7, 2016 By Marketing Admin Through our work in the nonprofit sector, we have found government agencies are often the critical (and missing) link to building and sustaining a strong social sector. But why has so little attention been given to their role and their efforts with respect to capacity building?
Grow Stronger & Achieve Greater Impact May 23, 2016 By Marketing Admin What do legal advocacy and organizational effectiveness have in common? TCC Group CEO Richard Mittenthal shares his takeaways from the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) 2016 National Conference in Minneapolis.
Legal Advocacy as a Strategy: An Undertaking of the Atlas Learning Project May 2, 2016 By Marketing Admin Over the last year, TCC Group has been conducting a field review into the world of legal advocacy in the nonprofit sector. Partnering with the Center for Evaluation Innovation and the Atlantic Philanthropies via the Atlas Learning Project, which aims to push advocacy in bolder and more effective directions, TCC Group has been examining how … Continued
Are There Too Many Cooks in Your Nonprofit’s Strategic Planning Kitchen? April 5, 2016 By Marketing Admin It’s not about the number of cooks in your kitchen, but about each of their distinct roles. Learn how to identify the chef de cuisine, sous chef, line cooks, and patrons in your nonprofit’s strategic planning process.