Capacity Institute

Are you helping your participants achieve their goals?

How effective are your programs, really?

How do you know?

Are you improving each year?

The Capacity Institute  helps community-based organizations that engage youth and families increase their effectiveness by learning to manage to improved outcomes in the lives of their participants.  We help them build performance management systems over two years.  Performance management refers to the systems and processes that an organization uses to measure its progress and improve its performance, in this case on intended outcomes.  Ultimately, the goal of the process is for the participating agencies to demonstrate the practices necessary to achieve improved outcomes for their participants.  Here is more information about performance management for nonprofits:

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  http://dekhconsulting.com/


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  http://www.vppartners.org/leapofreason/overview


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  http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Performance-Measurement.aspx


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  http://www.performwell.org/


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  http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2011_01_19_RB_PerformMgmt.pdf


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  http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/blog/2012/10/shifting-priorities-in-the-nonprofit-sector-creating-a-performance-management-culture/


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  http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/collective_impact

Outcomes are the profit of the social service sector.  If a nonprofit gets very clear on why it exists, for whose benefit, and what outcomes it helps them achieve, then it can measure specific data on those outcomes and learn to manage to improve those outcomes. 

The Capacity Institute works!  In 2010 to 2012, the Capacity Institute worked with 15 agencies in the pilot cohort.  Here are the results:

• 15 of 15 agencies completed the two-year Capacity Institute and built their own performance management systems.


• 13 of 15 agencies say the quality or outcomes of their programming has already increased because of the work

Here[link to be provided] is the list of cohort 1 agencies and their contact information.  They are eager to tell their stories of success in the Capacity Institute!  Please feel free to reach out to them directly.

 An independent evaluation found that these agencies “reshaped their programs to be more results-focused and their management practices to reflect the principles of performance management.”  Defining the Bottom Line:  An Evaluation of the BMA’s Performance Management Capacity Institute Pilot [link to be provided], Carl Sussman and Kim Comart, January 31, 2013.

Cohort Two agencies and investors wanted now!  The Capacity Institute seeks to work with a second cohort of fifteen small to mid-size agencies in metro Boston between April 2013 to March 2015 to develop 17 organizational practices that compose the performance management system  These practices answer the following questions:

• What are we holding ourselves and our participants accountable to accomplish?


• How well are we doing?


• With whom must we partner?


• How can we improve?

As of spring, 2013, the Capacity Institute has selected eleven of the fifteen agencies [link to be provided].  Right now, we are working together with their funding partners to secure necessary funding of $15,000 per year for two years, so we can get started. 

Learn more:  [Links to be provided]

• What do agencies receive?  How do they benefit?


• Why is the Capacity Institute important?


• Capacity Institute for community-based organizations


• Capacity Institute for grant makers and investors


• Frequently Asked Questions about the Capacity Institute 

For more information, please contact Ellen Bass at 617-445-2737 x 113 or ebass@bmaboston.org.

High Risk Youth Network:  The HRYN is a public planning process intended to strengthen the connections between youthproviders, City and State agencies, public schools and faith-based and community organizations, to expand and enhance services for youth at high-risk and reverse the trend of youth violence.  The Network meets monthly at the Roxbury Boys and Girls Club Yawkey Center.   All are welcome to attend and participate.  Since 2005, the Network has created a number of tools to strengthen and connect agencies that serve youth at high risk:  (1) The Needs Assessment Report, (2) Boston Youth Survival Guide, (3) Promising Jobs Practices Report, (4)  the Youth Outcomes Report.  For more information, visit the HRYN website at www.hryn.org or contact Myra Kinds at mkinds@bmaboston.org or 617-445-2737 x116. 
Girls’ Initiative:  The Girls’ Initiative is a network of agencies providing services to high risk and system-involved girls across Massachusetts. The goal of the initiative is to promote positive outcomes for high risk and system-involved girls, and to reduce the recidivism rate of girls. All girls-serving agencies are welcome to join this state-wide network as we work to change the way we serve girls in the Commonwealth through capacity building workshops/trainings and legislation, H4931, an act to establish a special commission on gender responsive programming for system-involved girls.  For more information, contact Kalya Hamlett Murray at 617-445-2737, x117 or khamlett@bmaboston.org.

In 2003 the Hyams Foundation began the Girls’  Initiative, in response to the growing number of girls entering the juvenile justice system. During the last seven years, the network met regularly as a learning community to share trends, interventions, prevention strategies, and to collaborate and advocate on behalf of high risk and system-involved girls. From the meetings emerged an overwhelming desire to share the message that Girls have unique needs that require gender-responsive services to positively affect change in their lives.  For more information, please review the Report on High Risk Girls and Gender-Specific Programming, published September 2009.