Capacity Building Academy is a Go!

I’m pleased to report that the proposal for a Capacity Building Academy, submitted by Social Entrepreneurs, Inc. (SEI), has been accepted by the working group! The purpose of this Academy is to increase organizational capacity with the goal of having program evaluation become a part of the nonprofit DNA in our community. The Capacity Building Academy (CBA) is a structured learning environment that, over the course of 10 months, will achieve two primary objectives:

1. Increase collaborative capacity to build connections, create future direction, and facilitate strategic business planning process in order to establish a sustainable framework for collective impact
2. Establish a culture of evaluation and evidence building—where evidence-based strategies are implemented or built

As part of SEI’s work, they have agreed to use their application process to help select the members of the first cohort. This cohort will do the hard work of the pilot CBA, which will make future CBAs smoother for all who wish to participate. Our next meeting on September 16 from 9-11 a.m. at United Way will be to

• review the pilot cohort application and modify as the working group sees fit
• begin developing the messaging about the CBA
• start the grant request work

The work of this group, named the Washoe County Social Impact Collaborative, ties very well into the work of the Northern Nevada Healthy Communities Initiative, a project of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. Participants in our working group see the two efforts as synergistic with the work of the CBA enhancing the goals and impact of the Healthy Communities Initiative. You can read more about the national Healthy Communities Initiative at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s website:  http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/surveys_and_polls/2013/rwjf406479 You can read the CBA Fact Sheet and see the draft RFA here. Tracy