New Questions for Advocacy Evaluators November 29, 2022 By Judy Ney As we’ve been sharing recently, TCC Group conducted three research studies over the last year about good practices for supporting or conducting advocacy in modern times. These pieces focused on understanding how funders can best support advocacy coalitions, how funders can best support grassroots organizations, and the best ways to work towards durable policy wins. … Continued
Policy Wins for the Long Haul December 7, 2022 By Judy Ney For decades, policy advocacy organizations have operated in America on behalf of workers, immigrants, families, and the environment, to name a small subset. Now that we have reached the 2020s, and a time of transformational social and policy change, the policy and advocacy campaigns of these groups are more important than ever. Increasingly, funders are … Continued
Re-Shaping Evaluation in Today’s World November 21, 2022 By Judy Ney We, as evaluators, have a responsibility to “to help transform the systems, policies, and practices that have created today’s challenges, and help build toward a more equitable, sustainable future.” This was the overarching message at last week’s American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference. The conference focused on three significant shifts that are currently influencing the social … Continued
Spotlight on TCC Group Changemakers: Rose Konecky November 29, 2022 By Judy Ney How do you inspire action in your advocacy work with your clients at TCC Group? The responsibility to take action lies with all of us. We want our clients to be able to immediately leverage our work so they themselves can take action. That can take the form of a TCC Group-created decision-making tool … Continued
Spotlight on TCC Group Changemakers: Naomi Korb Weiss October 12, 2022 By Judy Ney In your view, what is the value of creating space to bring people together around a shared objective? People and planning are among my favorite things, so convenings are a match made in heaven for me. My deepest work in this area is in leading our Convenings work group – a committee focused on developing … Continued
Spotlight on TCC Group Changemakers: Stephanie Coker October 12, 2022 By Judy Ney In your view, what is the value of creating space to bring people together around a shared objective? I think of convenings broadly as opportunities for reflection and collaboration that are often centered on – but not limited to – events held on a periodic basis. My favorite convenings are those that encourage ad-hoc collaboration … Continued
Convening to Co-Create a Sex-Positive Narrative about HIV Centering Black Women: A Change Is Gonna Come October 6, 2022 By Judy Ney A hallmark of a good convening is that it reflects the group’s culture and takes an energizing, inspiring approach that shares the aspirations of the convening itself. TCC used song titles from Black artists from across genres and generations to frame the co-creation of sessions of the inaugural Black Women’s Working Group to Reframe Risk … Continued
Localization Part 1: Ensuring Readiness of Your Organization for Localizing Data Design, Collection and Use September 20, 2022 By Judy Ney Localization is a hot topic today amongst philanthropic and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), particularly those engaged in international work or in cross-cultural communities within the U.S. (which, let’s face it, are most communities). This conversation is happening as the field continues to reflect on the history and evolution of philanthropy, and explore the reasons why large … Continued
Ten Steps Toward Meaningful Convenings September 8, 2022 By Judy Ney Convenings have long served as an essential strategy for advancing social change. Their potential for meaningful shared exchange and powerful outcomes is significant, yet without thoughtful design, may be uneven. At TCC Group, our approach to convenings begins by posing critical questions: How do we identify the most meaningful outcomes and how do we know … Continued
Convening Effectiveness Matters August 29, 2022 By Judy Ney The following article was originally published in Stanford Social Innovation Review. To read the article in its entirety visit SSIR with your subscription information or download a PDF. Large in-person events have been canceled around the world because of COVID-19 restrictions. Have you missed them? In retrospect, how valuable were those meetings? During the pandemic … Continued
Spotlight on TCC Group Changemakers: Jennifer Stephens July 6, 2022 By Judy Ney We’re checking in with some of our featured team members to hear how their work has evolved over the past year and what they’ve learned along the way. Tell us about yourself! I’m an expert in public health and a researcher. I love doing qualitative data collection and bringing that back to people in an … Continued
Realizing Readiness: Takeaways from Two Foundation Leaders July 6, 2022 By Judy Ney TCC’s Director of Nonprofit Effectiveness Julie Simpson teamed up with Senior Program Officers Annie Martinie of the Danville Regional Foundation and Andrea Kellum of the Healthcare Georgia Foundation to present “Radical Readiness: Who Decides Who’s Ready to Solve Complex Problems?” Co-designed by TCC Director of Evaluation and Learning Jared Raynor, the session explored how funders … Continued
Meeting the Future with a New Approach to Readiness: Part II June 29, 2022 By Judy Ney The unpredictability and overt inequity unmasked during the past two years are only the most recent impetus for TCC Group to articulate how we see the concept of “readiness” evolving in ways that can generate new solutions and ensure equitable outcomes. To help advance this transition from static notions of preparedness to a dynamic process … Continued
Our Culture of Continuous Learning: Retooling our Evaluation Tools June 22, 2022 By Judy Ney At TCC Group, we believe in building the evaluation & learning capacity of our clients from across the nonprofit, philanthropic, and corporate sectors to allow them to respond to the shifting normal. This practice was put to the test for many of our clients, and TCC itself, in 2020. In this blog, we profile a … Continued
At the Social Sector Crossroads: A Different, More Enlightened Path April 6, 2022 By Judy Ney What must we do when the walls of our communal house crumble, revealing the weakness of its foundations and infrastructure? The need for repair and renovation becomes urgent. We at TCC Group show up with our values and our skills, ready to re-examine the status quo, orchestrate consensus, and catalyze change. As habitual processes camouflage … Continued