How Do You Measure Progress?
This is one of the MOST frequently asked questions for nonprofit organizations.
Grantmakers ask for it in their applications. Individual donors (what we call investors) ask this question in conversations with staff. We ask it ourselves every time we meet with neighbors about a new project they’re designing and we’re helping them implement.
As a nonprofit professional for more than 15 years, this question for me can be really helpful and illuminating, and at other times this question can be hard to answer.
When a funder doesn’t seem to fully understand or trust our work, this question can feel critical. While constructive feedback is helpful, that’s usually not what a funder is offering. They’re trying to decide if you meet up to their internal standards for funding.
Which, to be fair, is their job, but often those standards have not been critically examined for bias. That is bias against black-led organizations, small grassroots organizations, advocacy or community organizing efforts — anything that doesn’t fit the mental model funders hold of what “solutions” look like to the “problems” they perceive to be affecting the community.
At Virginia Community Voice we try to critically examine our standards and our decision-making processes for bias on a regular basis. We’ve developed organizational values and principles to guide our fund development. We strive to listen to people impacted by our decisions, and act on the feedback we get quickly.
In this way, we approach evaluation of our programs and fundraising a little differently. For us, quantifiable outcomes are an important piece of the puzzle, as they help us understand the impact of our work in the community and alignment of our actions with our values. They’re part of the evaluation process, but not the goal of the evaluation process.
Here are some of the values-based questions we ask ourselves about our projects or engagement
Does the community believe ____________ is working?
Does ______________ align with their vision for the Southside?
Was the _________________ designed and implemented equitably?
Will _____________________ promote equity for historically marginalized communities?
If yes, then we can move on to asking some of the more common evaluation questions.
How many people participated?
How often/frequently did they participate?
What did survey data tell us about change, learning, or growth at the individual and community level?
What did observational data tell us about ________________?
When it comes to fund development, a similar process applies.
First we ask ourselves whether our fund development efforts align with our values. This is an ongoing, daily process that involves many conversations within our team, with our neighborhood leaders, board members and partners about the impact of our internal decision-making.
For example:
We co-create with neighbors as much as possible. For example, the structure and naming of our individual investment program — Community Voice Amplifiers — was done with the RVA Thrives Steering Committee.
Communications is a transparent and collaborative process. Several staff members read and review newsletters and social media looking for language that is not inclusive, places where we are speaking for someone else, or using images that objectify people. We take time to create messages that communicate clearly and have been given thoughtful review from multiple perspectives.
Bilingual staff help us translate all communications or write specific Spanish comms whenever possible (full transparency, this is an area for continued growth for us!)
We use captions and image descriptions on our social media posts to be more accessible for the disability community. Read more about this in Dana’s Disability Pride Month blog!
Next, we ask ourselves more quantifiable questions. To that end, here’s our 2021 Progress Report!
Since May 2021, the number of Community Voice Amplifiers has increased from 16 to 42! This includes a mix of people investing time and money each month in VACV as well as amplifying the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in their personal and professional lives 3 hours per month.
More than 30 people have made one-time investments this year.
In sum, individuals have invested more than $7000 in Virginia Community Voice this year!
We've applied for and been awarded more than $270,000 in grant funding from the following institutions: Virginia Outdoor Foundation, The Funders Network, Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond, Robins Foundation, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, CultureWorks, ConseRVAtion fund and The Schaberg Foundation
We’ve seen demand for our equitable community engagement & racial equity training and coaching services grow this year, generating approximately $82,400 in income.
Finally, we reflect on how our fundraising efforts are moving us closer to our vision — A Commonwealth where decisions are made equitably.
Approximately 80% of our funding goes toward our two programs: RVA Thrives & Community Voice Blueprint.
With these funds we retain and when possible grow our team of expert community organizers, advocates, coaches and trainers who are deeply connected and accountable to the Southside community.
Currently our team includes 11 people (meet them here) and we’re excited to be hiring another part-time, bilingual Community Advocate (learn more here!)
Our team engages more than 100 Southside neighbors every year, and provides training and coaching to more than 150 people per year from more than 100 different institutions across Virginia.
Approximately 15% of our funding goes directly to Southside neighbors for their lived experience expertise and engagement of their neighbors in collective action.
The Housing Working Group is publishing an Equitable Development Scorecard to hold developers and the city accountable to their vision for the built environment
Neighbors are forming a Greening Working Group, facilitated by the new Southside Green Collaborative, which will create a community-rooted plan for a greener Southside
Neighbors have held three Clean up Days this spring/summer, in Bellemeade, Hillside Court, and Davee Gardens
ARCA, a youth-led Arts, Reconciliation and Civic Advocacy project is up and running again!
YEER, the Youth Empowerment through Eviction Research project will relaunch this fall with more participatory action research led by Southside youth.
The remainder of our funding goes to supplies, materials, rent, and other costs to keep the organization running!
When you invest in Virginia Community Voice, you invest in an organization that tries to make equitable decisions in our internal operations as well as our external community engagement, advocacy, and programming.
Thank you to those of you who have invested in our work this year!
Bekah Kendrick
Bekah manages development and communications for Virginia Community Voice. She enjoys reading, hiking, and being near the water with her husband, son, and two dogs. Contact Bekah at bekah@vacommunityvoice.org.