Form 1 SCF Phone Interview Guide

Appendix C: SCF Grantee Telephone Interview Guide

OMB No. XXXX-XXXX

Expiration Date: mm/dd/20yy

Draft of SCF Grantee Telephone Guide per 11/02/10

SCF Grantee Telephone Discussion Guide

DRAFT per 11/02/10

Thank you for giving us time to talk with you. We appreciate this opportunity.

I am ____________, from the Urban Institute, which is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan, research organization based in Washington, DC. We’re conducting the national evaluation of the Strengthening Community Fund for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and want to talk with you today about the SCF and your experiences in implementing the grant. Learning about your organization’s experiences will inform our report to HHS and our recommendations for improving similar programs.

Before we begin, I want you to know that we observe a strict policy of confidentiality in our research, so that we can hear directly from you what is happening on the ground. We do not share what you tell us with anyone else, and we will not report what you say in any way that is attributable specifically to you or your organization. Responses to this interview will be used only for statistical purposes. We will treat your information in a private manner and will not identify you or your organization to anyone outside the study team, except as required by law. If during our analysis we find that we want to include a description of a “promising practice” that your organization used to implement the SCF award, we will ask your permission to include your organization’s name, but we will not do this unless we have your permission.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

I. Interviewee’s Role/Responsibilities

1. First, please tell me a little about yourself and your position at [name of organization] [Interviewer: if there is more than one respondent on the call, obtain this information for all respondents.]

   1. What is your position with [organization]?

   2. How long have you been with [organization], and with the SCF program?

   3. What is your role in the SCF program?

II. First, let’s talk about the economy in your local area.

2. Please describe the effects of the recession (since 2009) on your organization/agency and the FBCOs that you worked with (such as changes in funding, staffing, volunteer use).

3. Did participation in SCF help your organization retain or create jobs or hire consultants?

   1. If yes for either, ask - about how many jobs/consultants?

   2. If yes, do you expect to retain these positions after the SCF grant ends?

OMB No. XXXX-XXXX

Expiration Date: mm/dd/20yy

Draft of SCF Grantee Telephone Guide per 11/02/10

III. We’d like to ask you now about your experience implementing the SCF program.

*Note: If speaking to government grantees continue to Q4. If speaking to Nonprofit grantees skip to Q6.

This section is for Government Grantees ONLY:

4. What was the focus of your internal capacity-building efforts?

5. What was the focus of your outreach/educational efforts?

All grantees:

6. Did you make any changes in how you implemented the program over the two-year grant period? If yes:

   1. Did the program as implemented in the first year differ from the plans presented in your proposal? If yes, in what ways and why did you make the change(s)?

   2. Did you make any changes to program implementation or services provided in the second year of the grant? If yes, in what ways and why did you make the change(s)?

[Probe if all five core capacity-building areas were covered or if some were stressed more than others.]

7. What were the key challenges you encountered implementing or administering the SCF program? How did you address them? How well did that work?

IV. Let’s turn now to the outreach and selection process you used to identify FBCOs.

8. What form of outreach do you think was most successful in informing FBCOs about the program? Least successful? Why?

9. What were the main eligibility criteria/standards for selecting FBCOs to receive capacity-building services under SCF?

This question is for Government Grantees ONLY:

1. For government grantees – was there an application process for receipt of training or TA? How well did this work?

2. For nonprofit grantees – was there a different application process for different types of assistance (i.e., for training, TA, subawards)? How well did this work?

OMB No. XXXX-XXXX

Expiration Date: mm/dd/20yy

Draft of SCF Grantee Telephone Guide per 11/02/10

V. Let’s talk now about partnerships and collaborations.

10. How successful was the SCF program in terms of promoting partnerships/collaborations

    1. Between your organization and others

    2. Among FBCOs

    3. What factors helped or hindered developing partnerships/collaborations

11. Are these collaborations likely to be sustained? What steps are being taken to sustain partnerships/collaborations?

VI. We have a few more general questions.

12. Do you plan to continue providing capacity-building services similar to those provided under SCF? If yes, have you made plans/obtained funding to do so? If no, why not?

13. Are there any lessons that you’ve learned from implementing SCF or are there any innovative or successful practices that you’d recommend? On the other hand, are there things that you would do differently if you had to do it all over again?

14. What conditions or factors (a) contributed to or (b) hindered the success of your SCF program?

15. Were there any unintended effects of the SCF program on your organization/agency, the FBCOs that you worked with, or the community in general? [Such as more competition among FBCOs, or merging or dissolution of participating FBCOs?]

VII. Two final questions.

16. What suggestions do you have for the federal government for improving the implementation process or helping grantees better deliver capacity-building services?

17. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your experience with SCF that we haven’t covered?”

This has been very helpful.

Thank you for your time.

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