Capacity Building: Lessons from a pilot programme
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Significant funding is being injected into capacity building initiatives but there has been little shared learning about concepts and models, practical implementation or effectiveness. A pilot programme to deliver capacity building to black and minority ethnic organisations across London offers lessons about building the capacity of voluntary organisations to flourish within the new environment by adopting more businesslike approaches and becoming more outward-looking.
Title: Capacity Building: Lessons from a pilot programme with black and minority ethnic voluntary and community organisations
Series: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Findings
Authors: Jean Ellis and Shehnaaz Latif
Date published: September 2006
Number of pages: 4
Availability: View findings report
The programme was run by the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO). An evaluation of the programme found that:
- Organisations which committed to the programme achieved some significant developments in services and organisational structures and broadened their funding base.
- CEMVO's business approach met most success in organisations that were semi-developed, often medium-sized. Good local authority support for the black and minority ethnic sector and for capacity building more generally was also an important enabling factor.
- The strategic approach of working with black and minority ethnic infrastructure organisations and networks as 'host' organisations for programme workers had the potential to add value and greater sustainability to capacity building, but was variable in implementation.
- Linking individual skill building with networking and bringing groups into local partnerships strengthened organisational capacity building.
- The complex cross-regional approach (across London boroughs) meant the programme required more management, administrative and logistical resources than were available under regeneration funding arrangements. This affected the programme's coherence.
- About a third of the organisations withdrew from the programme early, most often because of the pressure of the one-year development timescale and because organisations did not match the programme's model of capacity building. The very conditions which capacity building was designed to address - such as lack of secure funding leading to inadequate premises or staff resources - sometimes made it difficult for organisations to participate fully.
- The funding body measured success using government-defined outputs. However, these did not capture or value some key elements of capacity building - the organisational shifts, strategic approaches, building of alliances and addressing of power balances.
- The evaluation concludes that the business model of capacity building and rigorous approach were well adapted to the needs of more established organisations. Greater flexibility in relation to timescale and in applying the capacity building framework itself would increase its effectiveness and application to less-developed groups.
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Last update: Tuesday, September 19, 2006