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Boosting the Impact of a Foundation
The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (HCF) is dedicated to providing leadership, advocacy and resources that eliminate barriers to quality health care for uninsured and underserved in its service area.
Community Science recently worked with HCF to develop a theory of change ((TOC) and logic model, and also made recommendations for developing a monitoring system to track progress toward long-term outcomes – to improve health in the communities they serve.
We talked to Jane Mosley, PhD, HCF Program Officer, who engaged Community Science for these projects, and also oversees the foundation’s research and evaluation activities.
The Change Agent: Describe how Community Science is helping HCF eliminate barriers to quality health for the uninsured and underserved in the greater Kansas City area.
Jane Mosley: They are helping us to more efficiently use the resources…and to do better in our work to eliminate barriers. While we can’t overcome all barriers, they are helping us get our systems in place relatively early, as our foundation is still young.
The Change Agent: What particular obstacles does HCF face in working with grantees?
Jane Mosley: One of our key issues, a key obstacle, is in our ability to report on what the grantees are doing. Grantees are great at providing services, but collecting data and information to actually quantify their impact – that’s a challenge for them. That’s a need for them and not just for us.
The Change Agent: How is Community Science helping you overcome these obstacles?
Jane Mosley: Their input helps us work in partnership with the grantees. For example, if a potential grantee doesn’t lay out a good plan in a proposal, they won’t get funded. With Community Science, we can help them work on how they can build better capacity. They can learn when something is working and when it is not. It is a process.
The Change Agent: Community Science helped you develop a TOC. In what other ways do you anticipate working with them in the near future?
Jane Mosley: Hopefully a lot. In developing this TOC, we looked at some key areas. Next, how do we collect that information? What is the mechanism? Can we get it with a survey or what other types of data collections do we need to track our progress?
We have around 200 active grants at any given time. A logic model helps us take into account all the different activities going on at once. It helps us to set up more effective organizations. We want to look at the foundation’s performance. Our grantees feed into that.
The Change Agent: What outcomes do you hope to see as a result of the collaboration?
Jane Mosley: The logic model was a key first outcome. Working with our board, we have a plan for assessing our effectiveness, which is critical. We set goals for getting the money out. Now, what do we want to achieve with that money? Community Science will help us establish ongoing data collection systems that will help us report back to our board, shift thinking if we need to, and see how to adjust in an ongoing way. We want to become more of a learning organization – institutionalize some of the processes. We don’t just want to respond to crises, but create opportunities for learning.
The Change Agent: How does Community Science factor into that learning process?
Jane Mosley: One of their strengths is their experience in these areas. When they say, “this was a challenge by other organizations”…or “here’s what worked for other foundations and here’s what didn’t,” we know they are speaking from experience. Community Science knows the foundation world.
