Coeffect’s Guide to Leveraging Small Evaluation Grants
Have you heard of the Capacity Building Grant? Foundations have recently started providing grants explicitly for capacity building projects that can build your team’s infrastructure and help you make a greater impact through your programs. While this is a positive thing, I wonder what that says about all the other (presumably non-capacity-building) grants that nonprofit leaders work so hard to win. The reality is that many nonprofits must piece together small chunks of funding — say $3,000 to $6,000 — to build the learning, data, and evaluation infrastructure they need to demonstrate their impact and win larger grants down the road.
This guide aims to help you, the leader of a nonprofit or social mission organization, make the best use of small evaluation grants. I’ll share several kinds of projects you can use a small evaluation grant for and contrast these with projects that you can’t accomplish with a small grant alone. This is based on data I’ve assembled from consulting with small and mid-sized nonprofit organizations over the last six years. But before I get into that, let’s explore what not to do when using your hard-earned grant dollars.
Five Traps of Small Grant Funding
There is no “right” answer on how to build the capacity of your social mission organization, but there are some things you should avoid if you’re lucky enough to get even a small grant supporting data & evaluation.
Trap 1: Waiting until the last minute. Data, learning, and evaluation projects need advanced planning to be done well. The amount of planning varies by project, but you will want to work with the most talented and capable people you can find. These people tend to be busy and need advance notice to fit projects into their schedule.
Solution: Start planning how you will use a grant as soon as you get it, especially if it involves hiring outside contractors or consultants.
Trap 2: Not prioritizing. Most social mission organizations run many different programs, and all have various questions and needs that data can help answer. But your funding is limited, and so is your time. It’s critical to focus on the programs and questions that will provide the most strategic value to your organization.
Solution: Start by asking yourself these questions:
Which program in my organization is on the greatest growth trajectory?
What is one question about this program that, if we answered it with data, would make everything else we do easier?
Let’s imagine we answered that question — what would we do differently with our newfound information? Is our new information or increased certainty worth the effort?
Trap 3: Creating silos. So often, grant funding is tied to a particular program or initiative — this encourages teams to create data collection, analysis, and reporting infrastructure that differs for every program. These silos get in the way of creating a coherent, streamlined organization-wide measurement strategy.
Solution: To the extent you can, use your small grants to create strategies, tools, and/or reports that serve the program being funded and that can also be used in other contexts. See below for some additional specific ideas.
Trap 4: Focusing on the easiest data. Some data points are easier to come by than others. Many important results of your organization are difficult to quantify. But only focusing on the results that are easiest to measure might lead you to not having data about the most important and/or unique contributions your team is making.
Solution: Brainstorm the kinds of questions you can answer with data and prioritize these without worrying about the ease of measurement. Professionals exist who can help you measure the difficult things.
Trap 5: Hiring unqualified help. It’s tempting to ask graduate students, volunteers, or interns to solve your measurement and reporting challenges. Sometimes, these individuals have a fresh perspective and the right skills to help your team make significant progress. Often, they don’t, and engaging with individuals with less field experience takes more of your time as a leader than hiring specialists who are experts in the kind of problems you’re facing.
Solution: Hire professionals (not graduate students or interns) for data & evaluation projects that are thorny and/or mission critical. You will save time by not having to direct their work, the deliverables will be higher quality, and you’ll have a more realistic understanding of the full costs of your program activities.
Smart Ways to Use Small Evaluation Grants
So what kinds of data, learning, and evaluation projects can you successfully hire out if you have only a few thousand dollars in your budget? I’ve worked with over 60 nonprofits over the last six years. Here are the kinds of projects that provide a significant return on your investment for a relatively small cost. Keep in mind that I’m typically working with organizations that have 5 - 40 employees; if your organization is much larger, these projects will also likely require more investment to match your scale.
Data Collection & Use Assessment: Your team might only be able to embark on a handful of important data, learning, and evaluation projects each year. But what projects do you choose? Many experts provide recommendations, which quickly leads to a list of many impact measurement practices you “should” do without having a clear sense of which will be most impactful to your team, right now. Engaging a professional to walk your organization through a Data Collection & Use assessment can be a helpful way to focus on the most critical projects. If done well, this sort of assessment will examine your team’s current data collection processes, data systems + reports, attitudes about data & evaluation, and strategic priorities. It should also engage your team in prioritizing potential projects, and provide a roadmap for how to complete the most essential initiatives over the next year.
Investment: $2,500 - $3,500 (details of Coeffect’s approach here)
Create a Theory of Change: A Theory of Change is a strategic framework that helps you illustrate the connection between what your organization does and the meaningful results you hope to help individuals, organizations, or your community achieve. A clear Theory of Change is the foundation for all your other learning and evaluation efforts. If done well, a Theory of Change should be created collaboratively with key stakeholders in and around your organization; include research about the nature of the problem you’re addressing; and identify the shorter-term outcomes you can measure that are preconditions for longer-term impact.
Investment: $5,500 - $12,000, depending on how many people are involved and the amount of research needed.
Get Data & Evaluation Coaching: Many organizations rely on staff with limited formal data, learning, and evaluation training to lead critical projects. If this sounds familiar, your team members probably have some relevant training and excitement for their evaluation projects, but might struggle to move projects forward because they don’t have anyone else on their team who is an expert in data and evaluation. Evaluation coaching can help you or your team members significantly increase their data and evaluation knowledge and apply it in a project, for less than hiring a consultant to run the project. Coaches can also provide templates and resources you can use across your team.
Investment: Varies by coach; Coeffect provides individualized coaching for $500/month (details of Coeffect’s approach here).
Create One Data Collection Tool: Small evaluation grants can help you create or revise a data collection tool like a survey, interview protocol, or observation checklist. Before embarking on this task, you will need to determine your priorities — what is most critical for us to learn from this data collection approach? How does it help us test our theory of change? In a project like this, it is important to allocate time to research existing data collection tools and determine whether to pay for a research-backed data collection instrument or create something of your own. Finally, it is critical to pilot-test your revised tool to ensure it’s appropriate for your audience.
Investment: $2,500 - $6,000, depending on the amount of research needed and the size of the tool.
Note that a formal scale design process involves collecting results from many individuals, statistically analyzing the results for internal consistency, and comparing individual results for your tool against other tools to determine validity. This is a significantly larger investment, and isn’t commonly needed unless you’re hoping to create an assessment that you sell or license beyond your organization.
Analyze an Existing Data Set: If you have an existing set of data — in the form of survey results, administrative data, or interview/discussion transcripts — but your team hasn’t had time to analyze it, a small evaluation grant can help. Again, it’s important to determine your priorities — what questions are most critical for us to answer with this data? What might we be able to test in our Theory of Change based on this information? After defining the most important questions to answer, a project like this typically involves the following steps: data cleaning + restructuring, initial visual or thematic analysis, more detailed analysis, synthesis, group review + discussion, and refining the results.
Investment: $2,000 - $4,500, depending on the amount of existing data and type of data.
A common challenge is a mismatch between your priorities and the data available. For example, if you want to explore whether your survey results differ based on client demographics, you’ll need demographic data in your survey or in a format that can be matched to individual responses.
Choose a New Data System: Choosing the database your organization uses to manage its programs is a critical decision that determines how your team uses data for years to come. Sometimes, it’s helpful to have a partner evaluate the landscape of providers and reach a well-informed decision. A project like this typically begins by defining what you need the system to do for you, and narrowing this list to the attributes that differentiate various options (initial and ongoing costs is always one of these attributes). Then, you compare your various options on the attributes you’ve defined. This process typically starts with 5-10 viable system options and narrows it down to 2-3 finalists, with a final decision being made after software demos from each finalist.
Investment: $4,500 - $6,500, depending on the number of systems reviewed and the formality of comparison materials created in this process.
Audit an Existing Data System: Often, nonprofit leaders inherit a programmatic data system from prior staff without fully understanding it. Unfortunately, too many data system implementations fail to include documentation about customizations made or how to use the tool, making it challenging for new team members to figure out what the system can and can’t hold. It can be useful to work with a third party to audit your current use of your system and create a roadmap for making the most of this system in the future. These projects typically involve reviewing settings, walking through how your team is currently using your database, creating new documentation, and recommending the most critical system development priorities. Coeffect helps clients who are using Salesforce specifically audit their system, and we’re familiar with other firms that do similar work for other platforms.
Investment: $3,000 - $12,000, depending on the number of unique organizational functions your team uses your data system for, and the size of your team (details of Coeffect’s approach here).
Projects Beyond a Small Evaluation Grant
Hopefully, the list above inspires you to find ways to use Capacity Building Grants to build your organization’s data & learning capabilities. That said, it’s important to have realistic expectations. Here are some projects that are typically not attainable with small evaluation grants alone, and why.
Integrating a dashboarding tool + building dashboards: A dashboarding tool is a reporting platform that pulls data from one or more sources (like your program database, your marketing systems, and/or individual spreadsheets) and reports it in a visually compelling way. Common dashboarding tools include Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, Google Data Studio, Lookr, among others. Even for small organizations, these projects tend to cost over $10,000 because significant time is needed to connect the tool to your various data sources, reshape this data so it’s usable for visualization, refine which metrics are important to you, and visualize them appropriately.
Mixed methods evaluation: While every organization has different learning goals and different data available, it is always helpful to collect data from different perspectives and/or using different data collection methods. This “mixed methods evaluation” helps you become more confident in your results. That said, any mixed methods evaluation involves designing two or more unique data collection tools, collecting data with them, analyzing this information, and synthesizing it into an audience-appropriate report. While certain steps in this process can be funded through small evaluation grants, mixed methods evaluation projects — even for small organizations — typically require an investment of $6,000 - $15,000, depending on the division of responsibilities between the consultant and client.
Implementing a new programmatic data system: As mentioned above, choosing and implementing a programmatic data system is an important step for any organization. Once you’ve selected the system, though, the work has just begun. Different systems require different levels of customization to hold the information you need. Regardless of the system, it is important to clean historic data and migrate this into your new system. These projects tend to cost between $10,000 and $60,000, depending on the number of unique programs you’re hoping to manage and the amount of historic data needed to import.
From Data to Action
We hope this guide has helped you understand how you can use capacity building grants to invest in your learning and evaluation strategies, habits, and system! As you can see, there are many options at your disposal. As I mentioned earlier, the cost depends on the size and complexity of your organization, and the division of responsibilities between your team and any third party you opt to work with.
Not sure which to pursue first? Coeffect has created a free Data Fitness Quiz that will help you consider your team’s strengths and weaknesses — you can download it here.
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Finally, Coeffect aims to help your team use data more effectively and make a greater impact. We’re happy to talk more if any of these projects would be valuable to you. Click here to schedule a 45-minute co-creation conversation with us!