Designing and Aligning Program Models and Organizational Outcomes: A Stakeholder Evaluation

Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, a Brooklyn-based arts outreach organization, offers programming to underserved youth. After determining the need for comprehensive program assessments, Rush staff partnered with a Capstone team to develop an evaluation plan, tools necessary for implementation, and preliminary survey results. The first step of the project required the collaboration of Rush executives and the Capstone team to identify desired program outcomes, which were subsequently mapped into program theory models. Based on these models the team created surveys to be administered to the following Rush stakeholders: youth, teachers, teaching artists, and parents. Responses from the surveys were then compiled and presented to Rush in order to provide the organization with information necessary for program assessment, development, and funding applications. Finally, in order to promote the continued use and ultimate mastery of the survey tools, the Capstone team trained the Rush executives on survey implementation and maintenance, and provided an instruction manual for ongoing future evaluation.