SPR enjoys a growing portfolio of work studying and supporting change strategies focused on racial, gender, and place-based equity. Our clients consistently tell us that they value our analytic lens, which is highly attuned to the structural barriers facing diverse communities as well as the assets that these communities bring to developing solutions. Within this work, we also bring specialized experience working with foundation clients to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into their own organizational policies, practices, and funding strategies.
Specialized Areas
- Retrospective Evaluation of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Racial Equity Grantmaking Portfolio. On behalf of the Kellogg Foundation’s Racial Equity team, SPR conducted a retrospective grant analysis of the foundation’s racial equity grantmaking. The findings in our report drew from a comprehensive analysis of over 700 grantee documents from the 269 grants funded within this portfolio from 2007 to 2013. Ultimately, we documented a wide range of innovative partnerships, coalitions, and strategies taking place across the country to advance equitable outcomes for children of color.
- Evaluation of the National Conference of State Legislators’ Quad Caucus Racial Equity Convening Strategy. This evaluation examines the impact of NCSL’s Quad Caucus strategy, which convenes representatives from each of their four racial caucuses to promote racial equity and racial healing in state-level policymaking. Evaluation activities include interviews with legislators and Quad Caucus staff, observations of Quad Caucus convenings, analysis of post-convening surveys, and a social network analysis of developing relationships across Quad Caucus members.
- Evaluation of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum’s Racial Equity Initiative. This initiative, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation through the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, invested in inter-ethnic and cross-racial collaboration as a strategy for addressing racial inequities in five Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific American communities around the U.S. In partnership with the funded communities, SPR co-created a racial equity framework that surfaced racially specific strategies of engagement, collaboration, and healing within Asian Pacific American community change work.
- Evaluation of the Kellogg Foundation’s Health Through Action for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders (HTA). In this five-year evaluation supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, SPR assessed the foundation’s $16 million investment in building the capacity of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities across the U.S. to advance community-driven health solutions, with an explicit focus on collaboration, pan-ethnic coalition building, and development of community capacity indicators for effective regional and national mobilization.
- Evaluation of The Colorado Trust’s Health Equity Advocacy Strategy. SPR is serving as the evaluation and learning partner for The Colorado Trust’s Health Equity Advocacy Strategy, a multi-phased, field-building effort focused on advancing equitable policy solutions for the state’s diverse populations through innovative partnerships and meaningful engagement of affected communities.
- Evaluation of the Hmong Health Project. In this initiative, The California Endowment (TCE) focused on building the advocacy capacity of 11 Hmong-serving organizations in California. In its multi-phased, 6-year evaluation of the initiative, SPR adapted mainstream advocacy capacity indicators to have meaning within a Hmong cultural context and guided TCE’s adoption of an asset-based model for mobilizing support of a statewide collaborative that continues to be sustained seven years after the end of the initiative.
- Evaluation of the NoVo Foundation’s Move to End Violence Initiative. The NoVo Foundation’s $80M Move to End Violence initiative was designed to end violence against women and girls through promotion of collective action and advocacy of innovative social change. A central focus of SPR’s 10-year, large-scale evaluation of this initiative was determining the extent to which diverse activists effectively created a new and aligned vision for the movement based on the intersection of race and gender.
- Foundation Diversity: Policies, Practices, and Toolkit. Funded by The California Endowment, this toolkit provides a sampling of statements, forms, and templates developed by 16 international and national foundations (such as the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation) that can be used by other foundations and organizations to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- The California Endowment (TCE) 2013 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report Card. Since 2008, TCE has engaged SPR to conduct four internal organizational audits of the foundation’s diversity and inclusion policies and practices, and to produce a TCE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Audit Report Card.
- The California Endowment’s Diversity in Health Evaluation Project. The California Endowment (TCE) enlisted SPR to support foundation efforts in building the capacity of the health evaluation field to use multicultural approaches in building and sustaining healthy communities throughout California. This project expanded The Endowment’s network of diverse evaluators, expanded the available published resources, and convened meetings on incorporating diversity into health evaluations.
- Evaluation of the Oakland Boys and Men of Color Initiative. SPR provided process evaluation and facilitation for the Oakland-Alameda County Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (BMoC), a partnership of systems leaders and community partners dedicated to improving the overall health, wellness, and life outcomes of boys and men of color.
- The California Endowment (TCE) 2013 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report Card. Since 2008, TCE has engaged SPR to conduct four internal organizational audits of the foundation’s diversity and inclusion policies and practices, and to produce a TCE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Audit Report Card.
- Evaluation of the National Association of Latino Elected Official’s Community Health Leadership Program. SPR conducted an evaluation of the Association’s Community Health Leadership Program, capturing outcomes from this work and supporting development of a health advocacy curriculum specifically targeting Latino California state and local legislators.
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