Grantees and partners during the breakout session “Community Leadership & Philanthropy in Action in Newark, NJ.” Image courtesy of IndieLifeMedia.
Our long-time partner, the Regional Foundation (RF), hosted their annual partner gathering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under the theme “Better Together” in late March. The foundation supports grantees focused on community level change in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. RF’s model brings together a constellation of resources for partners and grantees to lean into to support their ongoing planning and implementation work. Success Measures is serves as an evaluation technical assistance provider.
Arturo (Art) Garcia, Jr., senior director, Success Measures Evaluation Services, leads our work with RF. He was excited to trek across the U.S. (from California!) to participate in the convening to connect with and learn from community partners and grantees. The convening was all about learning together, hearing about the RF’s vision and reflecting on past work and future challenges.
Art reflected on his experience. “I really enjoyed listening to the stories and experiences of nonprofit organizations and leaders like the Philadelphia Chinatown CDC, Greater Easton Development Partnership, and Mayor Jaime Arroyo at the City of Lancaster in Pennsylvania. The experience underscored the importance of community-led change and highlighted some simple truths that are important to hold on to…
- Everyone can make a difference in their community, no matter how small the action;
- Sustainable and responsive change happens when everyday people are included in the process;
- Long-term, multi-generational and inclusive relationship building, informing, and organizing strengthens local ecosystems to quickly mobilize and address challenges.”
For two decades, Success Measures has worked with the Regional Foundation, and its predecessor, the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation, to provide evaluation and learning technical assistance and capacity strengthening to their grantees. Our work has helped organizations plan neighborhood improvement and engagement efforts, articulate the short-term and long-term change they wish to see in the communities they’re working in, develop relevant tools and metrics to capture and measure that change, tell their story about how their making change happen and their contributions to that change, and reflect and improve their work.
We are excited to continue to work with the Regional Foundation to provide their grantees with critical support.
You can read more information about the convening from the Regional Foundation in their May newsletter, Highlights, Insights, and a Warm Welcome to Our Newest Team Member!
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