For Foundations and Goverment

PROGRAM EVALUATION

While FIO Partners has successfully evaluated the impact of human service programs, using our data analysis skills and a utilization focused approach to evaluation design, our special strength is in using our organizational development knowledge to also keep the organization healthy and oversee its overall development while running a challenging program. We see these approaches as necessarily integrated. As a program takes off and is successful, it is necessary to adjust the organization’s infrastructure to support that growth. If a new program is struggling, it may be for reasons that are related solely to the program; or the lack of progress may come from obstacles built into the wider organizational structure. We use many of our organizational development assessment tools to support this part of our practice.

• Strategic Growth: A Guide for Nonprofit Organizations
• Adequacy of Management Systems

This product contains all of the elements listed below. The full set of Key Tasks and Indicators provides the opportunity for a full organization review, or, each function may be purchased as individual functional assessments.

• Strategic Growth: A Guide for Nonprofit Organizations
• Adequacy of Management Systems This product contains all of the elements listed below. The full set of Key Tasks and Indicators provides the opportunity for a full organization review, or, each function may be purchased as individual functional assessments.
  • Programmatic Strategy
  • Relational Strategy:
    • Systems Participation
    • Marketing and Public Relations
    • Fund Development
  • Supports and Safeguards:
    • Information Management
    • Human Resources
    • Financial Management
    • Physical Plant
    • Risk Management
  • Improving Organizational Performance:
    • Quality Assurance
• Organizational Learning Survey
• Board Survey for Start Up Organizations
• Board Survey for Growth and Established Stages
• Climate Survey
• Mid-Management Skills Assessment
• Internal Norms Assessment
• External Norms Assessment

SYSTEMS CHANGE

FIO Partners is committed to the value of networks among organizations, particularly to the influential relationships between and among foundations, government and nonprofits. We believe that positive working relationships among these entities create empowered communities that are better prepared to provide quality services for all who utilize them. From our work in the disability field, we are committed to helping organizations and systems become client-centered, using our work to spread the concepts and principles of this critical set of concepts to new fields of service.

FIO Partners can guide this effort by ensuring the appropriate allocation of responsibilities within the process; accurate data analysis including surveys, focus groups, and extended interviews; facilitation and conflict management; as well as the ability to gauge the likely impact of new strategies on all stakeholders: consumers, agencies, advocates, and funders. Meeting facilitation, conflict resolution, and evaluation research are also activity areas where FIO Partners can add value to the work of those who are interested in building more effective community serving systems.

If you would like to know more about our perspective, the following articles can be downloaded as PDF files:

• Systems Participation: A New Performance Criteria
• Client Centered Models: Implications for Management
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INVESTMENT PROTECTION

One of the more difficult decisions a funder must make is the decision to make a significant investment in a nonprofit organization based on a proposal. While many funders do their own due diligence to ensure that an organization can handle a large grant, other foundations lack the staff to undertake such an assessment. We would like to share our tools, materials, and techniques with funders to support these efforts, either conducting these assessments directly or by providing training to staff who will then be charged with that responsibility. We believe that the internal assessment tools that we offer to non-profits can be repurposed in this way.

Foundations and government entities providing funding to the sector may find the following articles of interest. They can be downloaded from this site as PDF files.

• Our Model of Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations
• Funders of the Nonprofit Sector as Learning Organizations
• The Question of Sustainability: A Challenge for the Decision Makers who Make Investments in the Nonprofit Sector
• Norm setting: Key to shaping organizational culture
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