Regional Projects


OMG now provides regionally-based training through local philanthropic networks. In this emerging approach, philanthropic leaders collaborate to fund an OMG evaluation training program for their region. Training sessions bring together diverse segments of a region's nonprofit sector, helping each organization - and the region as a whole - build its capacity.

A recent example of a regional project, conducted in partnership by Anita Baker, now an OMG Project Director, can be found below.



Rochester Effectiveness Partnership

The Rochester Effectiveness Partnership (REP) was initiated in 1996 by a group of collaborators that included the Bruner Foundation, Rochester Grantmakers Forum, the Advertising Council of Rochester, Frontier Corporation, Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, Halcyon Hill Foundation, the City of Rochester, and United Way of Greater Rochester. REP members believed that helping nonprofit and funding organizations learn and use a set of participatory evaluation skills was an important capacity building tactic. OMG Project Director Anita Baker was the lead professional evaluator on the project team.

The REP evaluation training initiative comprised classroom learning, group exercises, individual assignments, and technical assistance. Participants applied their new skills in a participatory evaluation project for which they received individualized consultation and feedback. The initiative was funded for seven years. Over that period, 166 individuals --including two evaluation professionals -- 14 funding organizations, and 32 social service provider organizations received evaluation training.