Organizational capacity building: addressing a research and practice gap

The purpose of this article is to address the gap between evaluation research, and the practice of capacity building with nonprofits. This study describes a 5-year capacity building initiative with grassroots organizations including a longitudinal evaluation of the implementation and outcomes achieved. Formative processes yielded many lessons that were used to improve the capacity building model of services. The results show that the majority of groups met a priori expectations for participation success. Organizational staff valued technology, consultants, and program funding the most. Increases were found in board membership and perceptions of visibility of the organization were enhanced. Executive directors reported greater awareness of needs and improved management knowledge. These small organizations fill many unmet needs and more capacity building evaluation studies are needed to understand the mechanisms that support their efforts and the impact on their sustainability.     

Using Social Network Analysis to Enhance Nonprofit Organizational Research Capacity: A Case Study

As donor agencies become more specific in funding requirements, research that can demonstrate the collaborative efforts of a nonprofit agency with its organizational neighbors and how those efforts pay off in terms of capacity and provision of services is highly useful. Recognizing these benefits, a local funding agency in Virginia commissioned a study to look at the ways in which social network analysis (SNA) can enhance the data resources available to nonprofits for funding and grant requests. In this article, we present a case study of a network of 52 nonprofit organizations to illustrate the viability of SNA in terms of funding and research needs specific to nonprofit organizations. We discuss the outcomes of the case study in terms of how the visual and metric outputs of SNA can be used by nonprofits to enhance the accomplishment of their organizational missions and strengthen their grant requests.     

Developing a research agenda in biogerontology: physiological systems

The Biology of Aging Program (BAP) at the National Institute on Aging supports research in many areas, including processes of cell senescence and apoptosis, genetic influences on aging, and how aging leads to tissue dysfunction. Several approaches to research on aging physiological systems are described, along with BAP programmatic efforts to enhance and support that research. Understanding the relation between aging and tissue dysfunction has led to new insights into how health can be improved for aged individuals.     

Research,policy and funding – academic treadmills and the squeeze on intellectual spaces1

In recent years, there has been a great deal of collective rumination about social scientists' role in society. In the post‐1997 UK context, public policy commitments to ‘evidence‐based policy’ and ‘knowledge transfer’ have further stimulated such reflections. More recently, Michael Burawoy's 2004 address to the American Sociological Association, which called for greater engagement with ‘public sociology’ has reverberated throughout the discipline, motivating a series of debates about the purpose of sociological research. To date, most such contributions have been based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. In contrast, this paper responds directly to Burawoy's suggestion that we should ‘apply sociology to ourselves,’ in order that we ‘become more conscious of the global forces’ driving our research ( Burawoy 2005 : 285). Drawing on an empirical research project designed to explore of the relationship between health inequalities research and policy in Scotland and England, in the period from 1997 until 2007, this paper discusses data from interviews with academic researchers. The findings suggest that the growing pressure to produce ‘policy relevant’ research is diminishing the capacity of academia to provide a space in which innovative and transformative ideas can be developed, and is instead promoting the construction of institutionalized and vehicular (chameleon‐like) ideas. Such a claim supports Edward Said's (1994 ) insistence that creative, intellectual spaces within the social sciences are increasingly being squeezed. More specifically, the paper argues we ought to pay far greater attention to how the process of seeking research funding shapes academic research and mediates the interplay between research and policy.     

Measuring What Matters: Achieving Consensus on a Positive Aging Indicator Set For Ireland

The objective of this study was to measure consensus among expert stakeholders on a set of positive aging outcome indicators in Ireland. Stakeholders from academic, public, and voluntary sectors and older people participated in a 3-round, online Delphi study to evaluate indicators for participation, security, healthy aging, attitudes to aging, and information access. Evaluation criteria included: acceptability, utility, accessibility, ranking, and balance and coherence. Consensus was achieved on 56 key indicators that are aligned with action areas in the National Positive Ageing Strategy. These indicators will be reported on a biannual basis to monitor progress in positive aging in Ireland.     

Non-formal educator use of evaluation results

Increasing demands for accountability in educational programming have resulted in increasing calls for program evaluation in educational organizations. Many organizations include conducting program evaluations as part of the job responsibilities of program staff. Cooperative Extension is a complex organization offering non-formal educational programs through land grant universities. Many Extension services require non-formal educational program evaluations be conducted by field-based Extension educators. Evaluation research has focused primarily on the efforts of professional, external evaluators. The work of program staff with many responsibilities including program evaluation has received little attention. This study examined how field based Extension educators (i.e. program staff) in four Extension services use the results of evaluations of programs that they have conducted themselves. Four types of evaluation use are measured and explored; instrumental use, conceptual use, persuasive use and process use.Results indicate that there are few programmatic changes as a result of evaluation findings among the non-formal educators surveyed in this study. Extension educators tend to use evaluation results to persuade others about the value of their programs and learn from the evaluation process. Evaluation use is driven by accountability measures with very little program improvement use as measured in this study.Practical implications include delineating accountability and program improvement tasks within complex organizations in order to align evaluation efforts and to improve the results of both. There is some evidence that evaluation capacity building efforts may be increasing instrumental use by educators evaluating their own programs.     

Towards an agenda for disability research in Europe: learning from disabled people’s organisations

This paper addresses the challenges of building capacity for collaborative participatory research with disabled people’s organisations in European countries. The paper presents initial findings from the project ‘European Research Agendas for Disability Equality’ (EuRADE), which seeks to build the capacity of civil society organisations to participate in future research collaborations in partnership with academic institutions. The findings draw on survey data identifying the research capacity, needs and priorities of 68 organisations in 25 countries and focuses, in particular, on responses from national or European level representative organisations of disabled people. The findings demonstrate a high degree of motivation and readiness for collaboration in academic research but raise concerns about the readiness of academic institutions to engage disabled people as equal partners within social model and rights‐based approaches. Respondent organisations identified a wide range of research needs that raise challenges for collaborative responses from the academic community. In this way, the findings provide a basis for developing user‐led agendas for European funded research within the emancipatory paradigm, and indentify important opportunities for new international research collaborations between activists and academics.     

Moving Toward Collaboration

Summary

Traditionally, organizations serving children and families have focused service delivery by available funding stream criteria. Federal funding streams supported fragmented services by tightly channeling monies to specific programs for specific needs. The intensity of providing and improving the delivery of services has overshadowed building connectedness across organizations and systems. Service has been the major goal and intense effort has gone into maximizing opportunities and measuring effects through service frequency. Over the past several years, new funding incentives have provided the opportunity for new collaboratives. This article describes an innovative collaboration between the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) and Eastern Washington University (EWU) and the unique directions and support that a university/agency partnership can provide for both organizations. Key features of this collaboration include shifts in funding and staffing strategies that contributed to more flexible services and increased levels of collaboration between IDHW, EWU and other community and state organizations and institutions. This article describes how funding can be viewed as a tool to increase the level of collaboration between systems, thus potentially leading to a breakdown of the traditional service delivery system. Finally, this article describes how an agency/higher education partnership played a key role in documenting the success of a school based program in meeting the emergency assistance needs of children and families, and how program evaluation, like funding requirements, can provide a supportive role in building collaborative relationships.     

Mentoring Policy Research Organizations: Project Evaluation Results

The international community has identified a positive link between good governance and economic development. There is an increasing appreciation of the effective role that local policy research organizations (PROs) in transition and developing countries can play in providing evidence-based policy recommendations as the basis for sound legislation and in assessing the efficacy of existing programs. Capacity building programs for PROs are seen as a key component of growth strategies. The donor community has responded with support for such efforts, which take many forms. On the other hand, the evaluation of the effectiveness of these capacity building and mentoring programs has been inadequate. This article presents the evaluation of one program, focusing on two important capacity building program outcomes: improved research capacity and greater effectiveness in the policy arena. A reflexive design is used. The results suggest the program??s approach is promising.     

The Longevity of Community Aging Initiatives: A Framework for Describing NORC Programs’ Sustainability Goals and Strategies

Naturally Occurring Retirement Community Supportive Services programs (NORC programs) aim to bring together stakeholders within a local area with a large number of older adults (e.g., a neighborhood or apartment building) to facilitate activities and services that promote aging in place. Despite enthusiasm for these programs, there is ongoing concern regarding their long-term sustainability, especially as federal funding to support NORC programs nationally has dwindled in recent years. This exploratory study aimed to develop a framework to describe NORC programs’ sustainability goals and strategies. As part of a statewide study in New Jersey, this study drew on data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with staff of 10 lead organizations that represented 15 NORC programs. Using a grounded theory analytic approach, findings revealed three types of sustainability goals: continuing the program indefinitely within the lead agency (described by eight organizations); integrating the program functions across other organizations (described by one organization); and defining the program as a finite project (described by one organization). Lead organizations implemented and developed their programs in ways that reflected their goals. This framework can be used to guide efforts to maintain, expand, and evaluate NORC programs and related community aging initiatives.     

Building Capacity and Capability for Evaluating the Outcomes of Social Work Education (the OSWE Project): Creating a Culture Change

This paper describes and analyses the first year of a three‐year project in the UK to build capacity and capability in evaluating the outcomes of social work education. A facilitated action learning set was established for six university social work programmes, involving in different ways academic, practice, service user and carer educators, who met to develop research projects focussed on measuring the outcomes of social work education. We outline the genesis of the project, and discuss the context in terms of both pedagogic research and social work education. We describe the activities undertaken in its first year, including the evaluation strategy. Some emerging findings are presented concerning the levels of learning outcomes being assessed; the role of the evaluator; the importance of engaging colleagues and students; service user and carer participation; and the positive features of the learning set. Plans for the remaining two years are outlined, including the piloting of outcome measures. Finally we reframe the model as it emerged in practice, extracting key elements for capacity building.     

Social Enterprise Among University-Based Centers in US Schools of Social Work

Globally, social enterprise is used increasingly by nonprofit organizations to create new funding streams in the face of dwindling public funds. In light of evidence that institutions of higher education are making similar adaptations, this study explores the extent to which academic centers in US schools of social work are using social enterprise strategies to fund mission efforts. Interviews with the directors of 16 social work research centers in 14 states reveal incentives and barriers that exist at multiple levels and considerably impact the potential viability of social enterprise in the social work academic setting. Implications for institutions of higher education and social work scholars are discussed.     

Consensus or contention: an exploration of multidisciplinary team functioning in an Irish mental health context

Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are conventionally recommended in mental health care literature as an important way to offer holistic treatment provision to patients. This study aims to explore multidisciplinary teamwork in contemporary mental health settings, particularly what aids and hinders the process of multidisciplinary teamworking, and the social work contribution in such teams. In order to attain an in-depth exploration of these phenomena, a single case study design was employed. Within this design, data were generated through semi-structured interviews and structured observation of a mental health MDT in Ireland. These data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The research highlights how the concept of mental illness is contested within this MDT, with the medical model dominant within an environment of fluid working arrangements. Professional role blurring and stereotyping were found to impact the division of labour on this team, with role negotiation found to be an integral part of retaining a professional's practice identity. This research raises concerns for social work's capacity to function within mental health MDTs in Ireland, and highlights ways in which social work educators might respond in order to empower Irish social workers to meet the challenges of mental health multidisciplinary teamworking.     

Interorganizational Partnerships as a Strategy for Lobbying: Nonprofit Administrators’ Perspectives on Collaborating for Systems-Level Change

Participation in coalitions has been identified as a policy advocacy behavior for nonprofit organizations, although few studies have examined nonprofit leaders’ perceptions of coalition building as a strategy for lobbying. This study conducted focus groups and in-person interviews with nonprofit administrators to explore how interorganizational collaboration is utilized to address their organizations’ policy advocacy goals. The findings indicate that nonprofit administrators view their participation in coalitions as a means of achieving several policy advocacy goals, including increasing their capacity to lobby and protecting them from exposure as lobbyists. Implications for practice and research are provided.     

La science en projets : financements sur projet, autonomie professionnelle et transformations du travail des chercheurs académiques

Drawing on the literature on changes in professional work settings, this article explores the transformations of academic research in the field of electronic engineering and micro/nanotechnology. It examines how changes in funding regimes (i.e. the development of project funding) have reconfigured the “conditions of possibility” for professional autonomy, the contents of academic work and the organization of research groups.     

How do new members affect the relationship between principal investigator’s network position and academic output of granted funds?

The paper focuses on how to improve academic output of a granted fund when the adding of new members changes principal investigator’s network position. This objective is refined by exploring how new members affect the relationship between principal investigator’s network position and the academic output of granted funds, and whether this effect is similar in high-output and low-output collaboration networks. New members are divided into two groups, namely, international collaboration and inbound mobility. Using negative binomial regression on research funds supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the results indicate that new members indeed have moderating effects on the relationship between principal investigator’s network position and the academic output of granted funds. Moreover, we find that this moderating effect in high-output collaboration networks is larger than that in low-output collaboration networks. Our findings provide practical implications for the decision makers to design funding planning and for the principal investigators to improve academic output.     

Modelling Farm Diversification in Regions Using Expert and Decision Support Systems

The building of expert systems (ES) and decision support systems (DSS) has become a recent feature of many academic disciplines, but few examples can be found in human geography research. This paper draws attention to the potential of ES and DSS by reporting research on modelling farm diversification in the northern Pennines of England for four agricultural policy ‘scenarios’. The results of similar modelling in four other ‘lagging’ regions of the European Union (in Ireland, Scotland, France and Greece) are discussed. The research shows the opportunities that diversification can bring to farm businesses, including raised farm incomes and increased farm employment. But much depends on the willingness and ability of farmers to modify traditional farming systems, undertake the borrowing of capital and occupy more farmland.     

What you don't know can hurt your community: Lessons from a local United Way

This paper describes how a controversial executive compensation package approved by a local United Way agency eclipsed the agency's long‐standing record and reputation of being a top fundraiser and pillar of the community. Using the framework developed by P. Connelly and York (2003), this case study illustrates how the lack of leadership and adaptive capacity within the board of directors, coupled with questions and speculation about managerial capacity, contributed to a highly visible scandal that resulted in the loss of the agency's chief executive officer, the resignation of the chairman of the board of directors, an internal investigation, and ultimately, a federal investigation. Not only did these events hurt the agency, which was forced to eliminate programs and cut staff, but these events hurt the annual campaign, which declined by more than 30 percent, resulting in substantial cuts in funding to dozens of nonprofit organizations. The findings from this study illustrate the importance of building strong governing boards that focus on both organizational processes and performance outcomes. They also highlight how important it is for the flagship charitable institutions to model best practices and invest in their own capacity.