Our Work
Examples of our services in action
Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning
The Jeannette Rankin Foundation is dedicated to empowering women, nonbinary, or Two-Spirit individuals who are 35 and older and face financial barriers to education. The Foundation is committed to transforming lives through education and strives to break down barriers for underserved communities. Rankin Foundation’s Scholar grants, case management, and other support have benefits that extend beyond the individual Scholars.
We supported the Foundation staff in strengthening their evaluation practices by reviewing existing tools, processes, and data and conducting interviews with staff, leadership, and Scholar graduates. With these insights, we developed an evaluation framework for the Foundation and a report of findings, with recommendations to refine their methods and enhance their ability to measure and communicate impact.
We are currently partnering with the Foundation to put some of those recommendations into action. To begin, we are facilitating a Theory of Change development process that will ensure they have a clear guide they can use to align program decisions with their values and priorities and measure progress toward their vision.
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Evaluation Capacity Building
The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFM) is a statewide community foundation investing in innovation to advance equity for women, girls, and gender-expansive people, with a focus on communities of color and low-income and immigrant communities.
Radiance has served as the evaluator for many of the Foundation’s initiatives since 2015, developing and implementing evaluation strategies that will maximize the impact of its grantmaking programs.
In 2023, we led a series of training and mentoring sessions to build staff’s capacity and confidence in leading Ripple Effects Mapping (a participatory community-based evaluation strategy) with seven cohorts of past participants in the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota (YWI MN).
This initiative is a multi-year public-private partnership between the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota that centers the leadership and solutions of young women and gender-expansive people, including those who identify as Black, Indigenous/Native American, Latinx, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and LGBQ+ as well as those who are from Greater/rural Minnesota and those with disabilities.
The Radiance team created a positive learning environment for Foundation staff and safe spaces for YWI MN alums to share openly about their experiences and the initiative’s impacts on their lives.
Strategy
Community Foundations Leading Change (CFLeads) is a national network that supports community foundations in advancing community leadership to improve outcomes. CFLeads advocates for a community-based leadership approach, offering robust peer learning opportunities, addressing issues through unique programming, and creating tools and resources relevant to the field.
Using strategies such as a field survey, appreciative inquiry interviews, and Ripple Effects Mapping, Radiance worked closely with staff and community foundation leaders to illuminate CFLeads’ value in the field and to help it build an internal evaluation culture with revised and new tools, along with an evaluation framework and plan.
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Stories
Forward Together centers Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and other people, families, and communities of color while aiming to shift culture, build movements, and change structures and policies to advance bodily autonomy and end reproductive oppression.
The organization’s Strong Families New Mexico program—now an independent organization—brings together organizations and activists statewide to build leaders who will ensure that all families have the rights, recognition, and resources they need to thrive. Radiance gathered data from multiple sources to tell the story of this groundbreaking program’s journey and impact over its first 12 years and provide insight for its future.
Our strategies included an extensive review of printed and online materials, staff interviews, a survey of community partner organizations, and participatory community-based evaluation activities with community activist leaders and partner organization representatives.
“Robin takes the time to look deep into your vision and listen with an open heart and creative mind… with an understanding of the arts that only comes from years in the field, and her fierce sense of justice, she meets you where you are and brilliantly helps excavate your goals with seemingly magical assessment prowess. She is a dream to work with and brings a deep commitment to excellence to her work.”
Tonya Marie Amos, Artistic Executive Director
Grown Women Dance Collective
Samples of Our Work
Strong Families New Mexico: The First Twelve Years
Forward Together
We conducted research, surveys, interviews, and bilingual participatory community-based evaluation activities so we could develop a report that staff and community leaders now use to tell the story of this groundbreaking community-led civic engagement and advocacy program.
girlsBEST Cohort VI (2020-2022) - Highlights and Impact
Women’s Foundation of Minnesota
We gathered and analyzed numerical and open-ended (quantitative and qualitative) information about Girls Building Economic Success Together (girlsBEST) and designed a user-friendly report that the foundation uses to inform donors, funders, and others about the program.
Learning from Nuestro Texas
We conducted extensive research and interviews and led Spanish-language focus groups to learn about the personal, community, and policy impacts of this initiative that helped community members build a movement for reproductive rights in the Rio Grande Valley.
Aprendiendo de Nuestro Texas
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice Center for Reproductive Rights
Realizamos una extensa investigación y entrevistas y dirigimos grupos focales en español para conocer los impactos personales, comunitarios y políticos de esta iniciativa que ayudó a los miembros de la comunidad a construir un movimiento por los derechos reproductivos en el Valle del Río Grande.
Stepping into Power - An Evaluation of Program Impacts 2016-2021
Forward Together
We analyzed three years of survey data and conducted new evaluation activities to learn about the strategies and impacts of a movement-building fellowship for organizational leaders. We presented our findings and case studies in a format that shows the program’s impacts and provides guidance for a new phase.
Rapid Response Fund 2016-2020
Groundswell Fund
We conducted an analysis of $2.2 million in rapid response funding to 220 organizations over five years by reproductive justice movement-builder, Groundswell Fund. We paired this external-facing report with a searchable and sortable data file for Groundswell’s internal use.