Strengthening the Capacities of Community-Based Organizations: The Elements and Impacts of a Foundation-Supported Learning Community

Background and Purpose:

Non-profit organizations deliver important social services to vulnerable populations, and foundations are increasingly building the capacity of nonprofit organizations to help them achieve greater impact. Indeed, organizational capacity is a significant factor determining whether a nonprofit achieves its programmatic outcomes. Nevertheless, effectively measuring the efficacy of developing nonprofit capacity remains a vexing challenge for the sector and foundations that support it. One model of capacity development that has garnered considerable attention is a “learning collaborative” that connects a community of professionals/agencies across a service system for cross-site learning, capacity improvement, best practices, and outcome achievement. The purpose of this proposal is to highlight the effectiveness of a three-year partnership between a university and a well-known family foundation to create a learning collaborative to build the capacities of a network of 26 community-based organizations (CBOs) across three city neighborhoods.

Key research questions were 1) What did participants identify as primary strengths and limitations of the learning collaborative, 2) What key capacity areas did CBOs report as high and low need at the two time points in the project, and 3) What lessons were learned about both the effectiveness and challenges of using learning collaboratives for capacity development and the tools for sustainable assessment of learning community outcomes over time.

Methods:

We collected data from members (executive directors and 2 other organizational members) of each 26 CBOs in the learning collaborative after years 1 and 2. In both waves, we assessed participants’ perspectives of: 1) strengths and limitations of the learning collaborative, using a modified version of the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory (Wilder Foundation, 2018), with questions added about CBO attendance at learning collaborative gatherings and technical assistance offerings, and number of reported formal collaborations among member organizations; 2) their organizations’ capacities, using the first statistically validated nonprofit capacity assessment tool specifically developed for smaller human service agencies (Despard, 2017); and 3) quality of capacity building technical assistance offerings, using topic-specific evaluation questionnaires and focus groups.

Results:

Areas of consistent high-capacity need over time were in the areas of fundraising and funding diversification (particularly government and corporate funding), volunteer management, staff development, and evaluation and performance measurement. Over 80 percent of members reported many positive aspects of the learning collaborative, indicating network respect, trust, and programmatic benefits. Key recommendations for improvements in the learning collaborative included identifying more effective ways to keep members informed about everyone’s work, frequency of meetings, need for highly flexible training support and 1-1 executive coaching to complement their peer sharing and coaching, and follow-up training to help them apply and “scale” the organizational impact of their learning.

Conclusion and Implications:

Overall, the results provide a glimpse into the benefits and limitations of learning collaboratives for capacity development among CBOs, and the effectiveness of the Wilder and Despard tools for assessing outcomes over time. Implications for how foundations can create, maintain, and assess successful learning collaboratives and develop simple tools for assessment and communication of impacts for sustainability will be discussed.