A Determined Attack on Need... Empowering America's Grassroots

Promising Practices for Improving the Capacity of
Faith- and Community-Based Organizations

Table of Contents |  Chapter 3: Organizational Assessments | Chapter 5: Technical Assistance

Chapter 4.

Group Training

While group training is often considered as a type of technical assistance, this report treats it as a distinct service category. Group training here refers to seminars, workshops, courses or lectures delivered in large group settings, and designed to teach key concepts related to a particular topic. Training content focused on common needs and interests related to organizational capacity including grant writing, financial management, board development, personnel management, marketing and creating partnerships.

Intermediaries in this study provided trainings at no cost to participants, and many of the sessions were open to any interested organization in the community. Typically, between 10 and 50 representatives from faith- and community-based organizations attended a training event. The number of training workshops offered varied across the intermediaries, ranging from a single two-day training to 43 workshops over the course of a year.

The trainings were delivered either by intermediary staff or outside experts. Father Joe's Villages (FJV) adopted a hybrid approach. A core team of two in-house instructors led group training sessions and, when necessary, FJV also brought in outside professionals with specialized knowledge. As one example, a workshop on nonprofit 501(c)3 status featured a question-and-answer period with a lawyer who specialized in advising nonprofit clients.

Benefits

Group training exposed some direct service providers to more sophisticated approaches to managing their organizations. For example, a number of the FBOs and CBOs working with the intermediaries had never written a grant proposal or did not know what terms such as "in-kind contributions" meant. (See the box on the next page for the experiences of one small faith-based organization.) However, service organizations differed in the support they needed. While small organizations with limited experience in submitting proposals were pleased that intermediaries walked them through the grant application process, the more experienced organizations felt that they did not necessarily benefit from such introductory workshops.

At the same time, group training sessions were valuable for more than the material they provided. Most sessions mixed whole-group lecture presentations with small-group and other peer-to-peer learning efforts, question-and-answer periods, and other activities designed to engage the participants. These shared learning activities helped foster networking among the attending organizations. Intermediaries reported that attendees learned about the services provided by their peers and explored potential collaborations. Several intermediaries reported cases of joint proposals or new partnerships that were formed among participating organizations.

Group trainings also benefited intermediaries that operated in areas where they were not well known. Training sessions offered these intermediaries the opportunity to publicize their technical or financial assistance, and to distribute applications to large groups of FBOs and CBOs. In the first year of its CCF grant, for example, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) held large training events in each of the four regions in which it planned to operate the CCF project. In each region, MEDA utilized existing relationships with a small group of local organizations to promote the two-day training sessions. While the intermediary intended that the training would get organizational leaders thinking about capacity development, the major purpose was to build participants' awareness of MEDA's CCF project and encourage attendees to apply for technical assistance.

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Promising Practices

Integrating Hands-On Assignments into Large-Group Training

Stand-alone workshops increased awareness about many aspects of nonprofit management—much of which was new to small FBOs and CBOs. But this awareness did not necessarily translate into action. Intermediaries reported that providing technical assistance as part of the training helped organizations put their newly gained skills to work.

Boston Capacity Tank (BCT). BCT used a form of "homework" during a two-day training event that focused on logic models and outcomes evaluation. A logic model is a graphic depiction of the links among programmatic resources, activities and anticipated outcomes. It is used to develop a corresponding action plan for implementing the program so it will achieve the desired outcomes. The plan outlines the goals and tasks to be completed, specifies who will assume responsibility for each task, and sets time frames for completing all tasks.

Between the first and second sessions of the training, participants completed logic models for their own organizations, in order to apply concepts they had learned during the opening day of the workshop. Then, during the second session, they met in small groups of two or three people to present their models and receive feedback. This second session also focused on developing an outcomes measurement plan, drawing on the outcomes identified in the logic model. Most of the participants had never focused on outcomes measurement before the seminar. Preparing the logic model and getting feedback on it gave them hands-on experience that deepened their understanding and encouraged them to use what they had learned when they returned to their organizations.

Building on a Shared Culture to Enhance the Benefits of Training

Shared backgrounds and values among trainers and staff from the organizations attending the workshops can help shape an environment that facilitates learning among the workshop attendees.

Nueva Esperanza. Because many of the grassroots, faith-based organizations that work with Nueva Esperanza are primarily Spanish speaking, the intermediary's project director hired bilingual individuals to staff its CCF initiative. Language is connected to identity; and while trainings and meetings were, to a large extent, conducted in English, it was important for the trainers and other Nueva Esperanza staff to be able to move back and forth between English and Spanish in order to facilitate communication and understanding, and underscore their kinship with FBO staff.

In addition, the fact that group training sessions were held with Hispanic organizations immediately placed the participants in an environment where they felt comfortable. That, in turn, added to the trainings' success because, as the project director said, "Stress negates learning." As one FBO executive director who attended the trainings explained, "There are certain cultural issues that are unique to Latinos. There is an affinity with people at the trainings because there is a common story and a willingness to hear criticism and be open and less vulnerable."

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An FBO Story Organization: Door to Life Ministries Intermediary: Nueva Esperanza Door to Life Ministries, a faith-based residential drug rehabilitation program in Brooklyn, New York, uses both "clinical and spiritual healing approaches" to serve the 25 men in its care. The organization's intensive approach helps the men heal their addictions, gain employment, strengthen their English skills, and become economically self-sufficient. But with an annual operating budget of $110,000, and dependent on its sponsoring church for 60 percent of its income, Door to Life Ministries has not been able to pay steady salaries to its employees, offering instead only monthly "donations" to them for their work. Increasing and diversifying its income sources by maximizing the ability of board members to garner new donations and by tapping new funding streams are crucial priorities. To help Door to Life Ministries increase its capacity in those areas, Nueva Esperanza provided training and customized technical assistance through its Hispanic Capacity Project. As a result, the organization was able to apply for 501(c)3 status and develop its first formal budget. Its director then began working with members of the board to clarify their roles, encouraging them to take on more responsibility and become more proactive. The organization had also never submitted a proposal in response to an RFP and had very limited experience using the Internet. When the Door to Life director approached staff at Nueva for assistance in responding to the intermediary's web-based RFP for a CCF sub-award, Nueva guided him through the web-based application and clarified questions he did not understand. Following advice from Nueva, Door to Life decided against applying for one of the larger grants, and instead submitted a proposal for an $8,000 grant to purchase computers that would enable it to systematically collect outcomes data on men who successfully graduate from the residential program and remain drug-free, sober and employed.

Table of Contents |  Chapter 3: Organizational Assessments | Chapter 5: Technical Assistance