Building the evaluation capacity of nonprofit health organizations: The Healthcare Georgia Foundation's Evaluation Resource Center

Background. Health foundations, and philanthropic organizations in general, have increased their focus on outcomes. Healthcare Georgia Foundation (HGF) is a health foundation with over $100 million in assets dedicated to improving the health of Georgia residents. In order to increase the ability of the Foundation to measure the outcomes of its grantmaking, HGF is working to build the evaluation capacity of its grantees. To accomplish this, HGF, in partnership with the Center for Community Health and Evaluation, has created an Evaluation Resource Center (ERC).

Methods/Program description. The ERC is a suite of evaluation tools and services to help nonprofit health organizations achieve and demonstrate outcomes. ERC services include technical assistance on evaluation sections of grant proposals, pre-post evaluation capacity assessments, customized coaching to develop logic models and evaluation plans, and peer learning opportunities. An online evaluation toolkit provides access to additional evaluation resources. The ERC is evaluated through pre-post evaluation capacity assessments, online surveys and in-depth interviews with participants

Results. Since January 2010, the ERC has provided services to 36 grantees in four cohorts. Initial results indicate a high level of satisfaction with ERC services, particularly one-on-one technical assistance tailored to organizational or programmatic needs and opportunities for peer learning. Results will describe evidence of increased evaluation capacity and other organizational outcomes of participating nonprofits such as improved strategic planning efforts.

Conclusions. Early results suggest that the ERC is a promising model for building the evaluation capacity of nonprofit health organizations and enhancing a foundation's ability to assess its effectiveness.