Operationalizing Equity: Centering in Communities

Efforts to understand the impact of philanthropic investments around community capacity building requires a new equity-focused evaluation approach, specifically one that identifies longer term and community defined equity-oriented outcomes that enable assessment of longer-term investments in addressing root causes. The St. Joseph Fund Community Building Initiative invests in relationship-building by supporting grassroots-led initiatives (rather than nonprofit organizations), with coaches accompanying communities in building capacity, relationships, and power to develop and implement community-driven plans addressing upstream issues through collective action. External evaluators examined project reports for 36 grants and identified themes with a focus on power-building processes and anticipated outcomes. Preliminary indicators of process and impact included: honoring community knowledge, stories, heritage, and culture; building relationships; creating structures and processes for community-led decision making; and addressing systemic inequities. We discuss implications for measuring intermediate and long-term outcomes of community capacity building initiatives, which will require community-led, out-of-the-box thinking.

Alana LeBrón, MS, PhD; Rachel Varisco, MPH; Jason Lacsamana, MPH; Amy Huang, MSW; Christian Ponce, MURP; Jon Gould, Phd, JD, MPP; Dara Sorkin, PhD