Studies by the six nonprofits that received research grants from Fund for Shared Insight showed a positive association between collecting perceptual feedback and achieving positive client outcomes. As part of Shared Insight’s continuing efforts to learn from the research, our evaluation partner ORS Impact conducted interviews with representatives from the grantee organizations and their research partners to more deeply understand the connection between feedback and outcomes.
Among ORS’s findings:
- All organizations found both reflecting on their research findings as well as the practice of gathering perceptual feedback to be valuable.
- Most organizations used their research findings to improve their programs and services to better meet the needs of their clients and as an input into program strategy work.
- Some research partners also talked about perceptual feedback spurring new ways of thinking in terms of research and evaluation.
- All organizations expressed desire to continue gathering and reflecting on perceptual data moving forward.
Read more in ORS’s full memo: “Learning from Feedback Research Grantees: Beyond Research Findings, The Value-Add of Perceptual Feedback.”
And in a related post at Insights for Change, see what the six grantees — Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula (BGCP), Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), Pace Center for Girls, REDF, and YouthTruth — have been up to since their feedback research projects.
