Evaluation Funds: Implementing Community Feedback & Transparency in Funding
This year we are excited to announce the recipients of the Good Measure Evaluation Funds, The Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas, Jeremiah Program and Ending Community Homelessness Coalition/Queertopia.
These organizations submitted clearly outlined and data-driven applications to request funding towards increasing community engagement in their org. strategic learning and evaluation practices. Each organization shared how they will implement values of community-led, equitable evaluation in their unique missions and visions, and we are excited to support their work!
Why & How Good Measure Did Things Different This Time?
As the Good Measure team continues to take various findings and threads learned from the Knology Report., it was apparent that when relaunching the Evaluation Funds this year, we needed to truly embody values of transparency, accessibility and most importantly – be led by our Good Measure community.
Community-led initiatives thrive on collaboration, transparency, and responsiveness. One powerful way to ensure these principles are upheld is by implementing feedback from the community into the funding cycle.
This led to partnering with various members of our Good Measure community to get their perspective on all phases of this funding cycle.
This includes gathering feedback on:
Request for Proposal (RFP) and Application Language
Accessibility of the application tools and communication methods
Feasibility of collecting “required” documents.
Reviewing and selecting final recipients of grant
Barriers and obstacles during grant cycle
Reporting requirements & timeline
Our team of community reviewers consisted of previous Good Measure grantees, members of the community who have supported Good Measure’s transformation towards more community-led work, one Good Measure staff member and one Good Measure Steering Committee member. All community partners were compensated for their time.
To prevent any biases or conflict of interest from arising, not only did we keep the names of the reviewers anonymous to the applicants, but we also kept the applicant names anonymized in a double-blind review process.
“I was grateful to be a part of Good Measure’s evaluation process for three reasons. First, as a former Good Measure grantee, I hoped to give back to Good Measure. Second, having fundraised in Austin for nearly two decades, I was curious to see what it was like being on the funder side of the table. And finally, I remember a time when my organization and I were very new to the grant seeking process. I wanted to be there to advocate for the smaller applicants, those who were deeply embedded in the community but not yet one of the “usual suspects.” The process was illuminating and I’m looking forward to seeing what this year’s cohort does with Good Measure’s support.”
We also held two information sessions during the application period to answer questions from interested applicants. We opened this time for individuals to learn about the RFP and application process, share proposed projects or initiatives, and gather feedback from Good Measure Staff and Funders.
As Good Measure continues to push towards shifting traditional funding models and remove barriers that keep organizations from receiving funding and support, we are thankful for our Good Measure community reviewers, attendees of information sessions who provided feedback and questioned our shift and our Good Measure funders.
We are grateful to be able to integrate community feedback and uphold values of collaboration, transparency, and responsiveness.
Evaluation Funds Process:
Community Review Sessions
Open Request for Proposal/Application August 30th 2023
Information Session # 1 – September 14th 2023
Information Session # 2 September 26th 2023
Close Application – October 10th 2023
Asynchronous Review
Big Group Review – November 20th 2023
Big Group Review – November 27th 2023