The Colorado Trust
Building and Bridging Power
The Challenge
The Building and Bridging Power strategy aims to build community power and strengthen an organizing infrastructure and advocacy environment so that impacted community members are able to advance policy solutions addressing their most pressing issues at the local, regional and state levels. The Colorado Trust set out to fund power building activities to advance health equity through relationship building, advocacy, and policy work among “grassroots” and “grassstops” organizations in the state of Colorado. Many of these organizations had no relationship with each other and the project rolled out shortly before COVID changed everything.
The Approach
We provided an external review of the grantee selection process and advised on the rubric and criteria. After the grants were made, we designed a theory of change in partnership with the Colorado Trust team and a multi-year evaluation and learning plan in partnership with 23 grantees.
Prioritized grantee's definitions of success
Utilizing an equity lens in evaluation planning
Designing cutting edge methodologies for a multi-site, multi-stakeholder strategy
Innovations, both individual and communal to COVID
“Zuri’s knowledge of community organizing as well as her rigorous training in evaluation methodologies is a rare and valued skill set. As our evaluation and learning partner, she continually and graciously challenged us to center grantees in our evaluation approach and allow space for emergent learnings and outcomes. We appreciated the deep respect and care she showed for our partners as well as her principled partnership.”
felisa gonzales | Evaluation and Learning Manager
Highlights
1.
We partnered with Center for Assessment and Policy Development to develop the strategy and implement the evaluation.
2.
Final deliverables included a multi-year evaluation and learning plan with outcomes and metrics.
3.
The Colorado Trust allocated $17,520,000 in grant funding statewide.