Toolkit: Building Organizational Evidence Capacity: Guides for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Related Programs

Research suggests that evidence capacity shows up in five key areas: leadership, organizational culture, organizational infrastructure, staff capabilities, and organizational engagement and communication. This set of five guides is designed to help practitioners of TANF and related human services programs work through a process for strengthening their organization’s capacity to use and build evidence in one or more of these areas. Each guide outlines a four-step process for reflecting on and assessing the evidence capacity domain, narrowing a focus for potential change, defining the desired change, and checking success. The guides are designed to be used by organizations themselves or in collaboration with a research and evaluation technical assistance provider.

The five areas of evidence capacity and the vision of what represents strong evidence capacity are derived from a review of key research studies that contained an evidence or evaluation capacity framework and were published within the past 15 years. The format and structure of the guides were designed with multiple rounds of input from TANF and related program teams that received technical assistance through Project SPARK between 2021-2022.

Michelle Derr, Alexandra Stanczyk, Jonathan McCay, and Annalisa Mastri (2022). Building Organizational Evidence Capacity: Guides for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Related Programs. OPRE Report # 2022-126, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.