MAY 2005: SPECIAL FEATURE

Fundraising for Refugee-Serving Agencies - Part 6

THE FEEDBACK LOOP: PLANNING, IMPLEMENTATION, EVALUATION & DONOR CULTIVATION

As we have discussed in previous columns, the science and art of fundraising involves much more than just asking for money. In order to secure funding, organizations must first and foremost be able to clearly explain their own mission, along with the activities they will carry out to support that mission. Each activity, in turn, must have its own set of objectives that can be matched with the objectives of a given donor. Most donors also want to know how effective organizations are in achieving these objectives. Such information is vital to:

• Keep existing donors informed throughout the project cycle
• Retain donors who may be willing to fund another project cycle or subsequent activities
• Attract new donors who will want to know your organization’s track record in achieving its objectives

The following discussion touches briefly on how such information can be collected and communicated throughout each stage of the project cycle. Additional resources are included at the end of this article.

The Project Cycle

The project cycle spans the entire project, from the initial assessment and planning phase, through activity implementation, and on to the evaluation of the project impact at the end of the cycle. Results of the evaluation can then be used to improve project effectiveness during the next project cycle (see diagram below). Each of these phases also has important implications for communicating with existing and future donors. (From: The Project Cycle: A Teaching Module by Maeve Moynihan as adapted from “How to Build a Good Small NGO”. Published by networklearning.)

Project Assessment and Planning

During the assessment and planning phase, your organization should conduct research to better understand the needs of your client refugee or immigrant community. For example, in 2003 the BRYCS program conducted a needs assessment to determine the specific challenges facing refugee youth, children and parents in several resettlement locations (see Directions in Service Provision: Findings From Needs Assessments of Refugee Youth, Children, and Parents - Cuyahoga County, Ohio; DeKalb County, Georgia; St. Louis, Missouri for more information). The results of this assessment have been used to shape BRYCS’ project activities the last two years.

Once your organization has determined the needs of your client community, you will be ready to design a project to improve the situation. Developing a logic model of your program approach will help you to think more clearly about how to plan, implement and evaluate your project. According to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, "a program logic model is a picture of how your program works - the theory and assumptions underlying the program." The logic model:

• links short- and long-term outcomes with program activities as well as the assumptions and principles of the program
• provides a roadmap of your program, showing how the program should work, the required order of activities and how your program will achieve its desired outcomes
  (From: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Toolkit, January 1998.)

The logic model will show how your project relates to your organization's work. It will also illustrate the outcomes you hope to achieve and how you expect to accomplish them. Components of the logic model include:

• Your planned work
• Required resources or inputs - includes available human, financial, organizational and community resources
• Program activities - includes program tools, technology, processes and actions
   
• Your intended results
• Outputs - "direct products of program activities and may include types, levels and targets of services to be delivered by the program”
• Short- and long-term outcomes - "specific changes in program participants’ behavior, knowledge, skills, status and level of functioning"
• Impact - "fundamental intended or unintended change occurring in organizations, communities or systems as a result of program activities"; often occurs after project funding concludes
  (From: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide: Using Logic Models to Bring Together Planning, Evaluation, & Action, December 2001) Note that logic models can look different from organization to organization. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Toolkit has several examples illustrating different types of logical models. Note that whatever your own organization's model may look like, it will have the same components.

This type of information will help your organization improve its overall project management capabilities. In addition, the use of logic modeling also proves a highly effective way to illustrate the strength of your program planning and design to potential donors. Information from your logic model should therefore be included in the project funding proposal in either text or diagram form.

Implementation and Monitoring

Once the project is funded, your organization can begin the implementation phase. In this phase, program activities are carried out. During the implementation phase, the project management must keep careful track of:

• Activities completed during a given time period, usually a 3-6 month period
• Resources used to carry out these activities
• Outputs and services delivered to clients
• Numbers of clients served

Each organization and respective donor will have their own way of defining and shaping the type and timing of information to be monitored during this phase. Collecting and reporting this information provides an ideal opportunity to show the donor that you are indeed accountable for the money they have invested, and that you have indeed produced important products and services to the target community as a result of their funding.

Evaluation and Adaptation

Once your organization has implemented each of the previous steps, the final phases of the project cycle, evaluation and adaptation, should prove relatively easy to complete. Some organizations choose to carry out both process and impact evaluations. A process evaluation considers how well an organization is carrying out the implementation phase. That is, how well the organization is going about investing its resources in activities and thereby producing the intended outputs and services. It also considers whether these activities seem to be headed in the right direction toward achieving the intended outcomes and impacts. Adjustments or adaptations can then be devised to put the project back on track, or, if all is going as planned, little if any adaptation may be needed.

An impact evaluation, on the other hand, must be carried out toward the end of the project cycle, as it focuses on whether the intended outcomes and/or impact have actually been achieved. Performance indicators should be measured first at the beginning of a project, as part of the needs assessment or in an early baseline study. At the end of the project, these same indicators should again be measured to see how much of a change has been achieved. Organizations should take great care in reporting their evaluation results to donors, tailoring the content of the evaluation
report(s) to the specific interests and requirements of each of the individual donors involved.

A mixture of both quantitative and qualitative information can prove especially powerful. For example, quantitative or numerical data can be collected which shows service utilization before and after the program was implemented: "Service use increased 56% since the program began a year ago." Qualitative data such as narrative text or stories collected from your clients can be used to describe a program participant’s experience, whether barriers were encountered, etc.: "I did not understand how the American school system works before I attended this class. Now I know what is expected of my child and of me.” This quantitative and qualitative information can then be used to encourage existing donors to continue their support into the next project cycle. It can also be used to market the organization’s effectiveness to new potential donors via a communications campaign and new project proposals.

Additional Resources to Learn More

The following resources provide additional, in-depth information on both logic models and the evaluation process:

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Toolkit - Available in English and Spanish, this toolkit provides a wealth of information on how to develop a logic model that fits the needs of your own organization as well as how to carry out an evaluation.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide: Using Logic Models to Bring Together Planning, Evaluation, & Action - Available in English and Spanish, this guide provides step-by-step guidance on developing a logic model for use in program planning, implementation, and evaluation. This handbook presents tools for linking program goals, processes, and short- and long-term outcomes.

Measuring Program Outcomes: A Practical Approach (manual) - The United Way of America publishes this step-by-step manual which explains how to specify program outcomes, develop measurable indicators, identify data sources and data collection methods, analyze and report findings, and use outcome information. Also available is the Measuring Program Outcomes Training Kit.

The BRYCS Clearinghouse - The BRYCS Clearinghouse includes resources about evaluation and assessment.

This featured search provides additional resources about fundraising.