MW Health Blog

In its recently released report, “Building Capacity to Measure and Manage Performance,” The Bridgespan Group notes that nonprofits do not appear to be investing in their own ability to measure their impact. They cite a study from the Innovation Network, a nonprofit evaluation firm in Washington, D.C., that found only 13 percent of nonprofits surveyed have a staff person devoted to evaluation.

Furthermore, nonprofits saw the main audience for performance measurement as external constituents such as funders rather than viewing it as an important tool for staff to use for improvement. However, for those nonprofits that do have internal staff evaluation capacity, the Bridgespan report found the results are better services, more rapid innovation and effective cost containment.

A couple of years ago the Foundation informally surveyed 35 grantees and found a similar situation locally - most organizations felt their capacity to use evaluation findings was only “moderate.” After convening a task force to study the issue further, we decided to do something about it and, in the fall of 2011, the Foundation launched the Evaluation Institute.

The Evaluation Institute was designed to do exactly what the Bridgespan Group recommends - build nonprofits’ internal capacity to measure their performance. An analysis of the pilot program found that participants achieved the following outcomes:

1) developed important evaluation skills
2) successfully developed their own evaluation design projects
3) addressed evaluation challenges
4) enhanced their evaluative thinking

Participants gave high marks to the trainers, content presentations, class activities and training manual. Over half reported that the Evaluation Institute was the right length of time but a significant number felt it was not long enough.

Based on the positive results, the Foundation plans on implementing a second Evaluation Institute in the fall of 2012. Participation will be by invitation only and organizations will again be required to send teams of two to three staff, including one member of the management team.

This is a guest post by Tammy Calise of John Snow, Inc.

Childhood obesity is a complex issue not easily solved with a one-size-fits-all solution.

That’s why one suburban town in Massachusetts decided to attack the problem from all angles: at home, school, work and play.

“Building a Healthy Northborough” is an initiative supported by the MetroWest Health Foundation in partnership with Mass in Motion, to find concrete ways to create an environment that supports healthy eating habits and physical activity for youth and their families.

Northborough’s initiative is part of statewide effort to reduce obesity and get people moving. As a consultant hired to work with the town on the initiative, it has been exciting for me to watch as the community has made real and lasting changes.

In a time when close to one-third of children are obese and many more are overweight, it is critical to look beyond individual behaviors and address the root causes of the problem—and that’s what Northborough is doing. Northborough’s approach has been to involve the entire community —including school administrators, local businesses, government, youth, and families—and get leaders to make changes on a broad-based environmental and policy level.

What we’ve found in Northborough is that it takes many parts of the community to be involved - not just the schools, but also afterschool program providers, as well as the recreation department. And private business along with town departments such as planning, health, and family and youth services are also taking part.

Schools for example, are identifying places where traditional approaches can be revisited. In Northborough, the Marion E. Zeh Elementary School changed its schedule after a group of teachers recommended that recess be moved before lunch rather than after. School officials discovered that when children eat their lunch after recess, they are calmer and they have time to eat their vegetables as well as their main meal.

The national, evidence-based CATCH Kids Club after-school program for children in the Northborough Extended Day Program, encourages peer interaction, teaches children activities they can play any time, enhances their skills to do these activities and reinforces the importance of healthy eating and physical activity.

Northborough’s Planning Department is making community changes including adding benches to walking trails. This improves the appearance of the trail and also helps increase use among individuals at all levels of fitness, such as beginners who need frequent breaks.

At the policy and systems level, we are working to change cultural influences through several efforts to market the healthy living message, including a newsletter highlighting overall Building a Healthy Northborough and school-related activities, healthy food recipes and weather-appropriate physical activities.

This all-inclusive model is working for obesity. It’s time we started to look at other public health problems through the same lens.

Tammy Calise is a Senior Consultant with John Snow, Inc., which is providing technical assistance, strategic direction, program management, and evaluation services to the Building a Healthy Northborough initiative.

If you are a health policy wonk like me, you probably spent last week listening to or pouring over news accounts of the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearings regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

There were the difficult legal questions – Is a penalty a tax? And if so, can the court take up a question about the legality of a tax before it is actually levied? Can Congress require citizens to have mandatory health insurance? What happens to the health insurance model under the ACA if the mandatory coverage provision is struck down? And, what about all the other provisions of the law, should they be declared null and void as well?

Through all the arguments back and forth, a couple of things crossed my mind. First, the outcome of this case will probably be one of the most important and powerful decisions we will see the court make in quite some time.

Second, what a truly great system of government we have in that there is a place and process for trying to adjudicate critical policy questions such as these, although equally disappointing that our Congress seems incapable of addressing these issues in a bipartisan way without court intervention.

And finally, is making someone eat broccoli or buy a cellphone really the best examples the justices could come up with as to the far-reaching powers of Congress?

As I wait for the court’s decision due in late June, I remain hopeful that the court will see as we have here in Massachusetts that mandatory health insurance coverage is a workable solution (See "Progress in Health Reform") to the problem of the uninsured and worthy of continued implementation.

The views expressed here are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.