E-mails to Grantees

Appendix 3: Emails from Abt to Grantees

3.1 Telephone Interview: Introductory Email from Abt

Dear [NAME],

I am contacting you today to ask for your help in a research study that Abt Associates is conducting about HUD’s Office of University Partnerships (OUP) programs. This study is focusing on grants awarded between 2005 and 2008, including the grant(s) your institution received in [YEAR(S)].

You should have received a letter recently from Sherone Ivy at HUD informing you about the study. The purpose of the study is to:

• help HUD understand the types of activities undertaken with OUP grants,

• document the changes that occur as a result of OUP funding,

• explore the roles that partnership structures, grant purpose, and program design play in producing outcomes, and

• understand the problems and challenges your institution faced when implementing the grant.

As part of this study, Abt will be conducting telephone interviews with 67 OUP grantees, including your institution. The telephone interview will last about 45 minutes.

Prior to this interview, we will ask you to complete a short web survey. The survey should take no more than 20 minutes, and will gather basic information about the OUP grant(s) you have received, such as the types of activities implemented and the organizations you partnered with for implementation. The information you provide in the survey will be used to streamline the telephone interview and help to avoid asking you irrelevant questions.

Ultimately, the study will focus on the collective achievements of all grantees rather than those of any one grantee. When reporting interview data to HUD, we will remove any information that might identify your organization.

Although participation is voluntary, we have included a link below to your personalized web survey. Please complete this survey within the next week. If you feel that you are not the most appropriate person to complete this survey, I would appreciate your forwarding to me the contact information of the right person (name, telephone number, and email address).

[LINK]

Once we have your completed survey, we will call or email you to set up a convenient time for the telephone interview. The person who completes this interview should be able to describe the outcomes achieved as a result of the grant, as well as any problems or challenges your institution faced during implementation. It is possible that I will need to speak with more than one person from your institution in order to gather the desired information. If that is the case, please let me know and I will work with you to determine the appropriate structure for our telephone call (for example, multiple individuals participate in a joint call, or one individual answers most of the questions with Abt following up with additional individuals as needed to collect any missing information).

We look forward to speaking with you soon,

[NAME]

3.2 Telephone Interview: Introductory Email from Abt (to second/referred contact)

Dear [NAME],

We are contacting you today to ask for your help in a research study that Abt Associates is conducting about HUD’s Office of University Partnerships (OUP) programs. This study is focusing on grants awarded between 2005 and 2008, including the grant(s) your institution received in [YEAR(S)]. You were referred to us by ______, who received a letter recently from [NAME] at HUD that discussed the upcoming study.

The purpose of the study is to:

• help HUD understand the types of activities undertaken with OUP grants,

• document the changes that occur as a result of OUP funding,

• explore the roles that partnership structures, grant purpose, and program design play in producing outcomes, and

• understand the problems and challenges your institution faced when implementing the grant.

As part of this study, Abt will be conducting telephone interviews with 67 OUP grantees, including your institution. The telephone interview will last about 45 minutes.

Prior to this interview, we will ask you to complete a short web survey. The survey should take no more than 20 minutes, and will gather basic information about the OUP grant(s) you have received, such as the types of activities implemented and the organizations you partnered with for implementation. The information you provide in the survey will be used to streamline the telephone interview and help to avoid asking you irrelevant questions.

Ultimately, the study will focus on the collective achievements of all grantees rather than those of any one grantee. When reporting interview data to HUD, we will remove any information that might identify your organization.

Although participation is voluntary, we have included a link below to your personalized web survey. Please complete this survey within the next week. If you feel that you are not the most appropriate person to complete this survey, I would appreciate your forwarding to me the contact information of the right person (name, telephone number, and email address).

[LINK]

Once we have your completed survey, we will call or email you to set up a convenient time for the telephone interview. The person who completes this interview should be able to describe the outcomes achieved as a result of the grant, as well as any problems or challenges your institution faced during implementation. It is possible that I will need to speak with more than one person from your institution in order to gather the desired information. If that is the case, please let me know and I will work with you to determine the appropriate structure for our telephone call (for example, multiple individuals participate in a joint call, or one individual answers most of the questions with Abt following up with additional individuals as needed to collect any missing information).

I look forward to speaking with you soon

[NAME]

3.3 Telephone Interview: Follow-up Email Prior to Telephone Interview

Dear [NAME],

Thank you for completing the web survey about your OUP-funded activities on [DATE]. I now want to schedule a time for a follow-up interview that will allow us to gather more in-depth information about how you used your OUP grant(s). During this interview we will focus on your efforts related to two activities: [ACTIVITY X] implemented under the [GRANT YEAR] OUP grant and [ACTIVITY Y] implemented under the [GRANT YEAR] OUP grant. These activities were selected randomly from all the activities you implemented and we will ask about each of them separately.

[IF ONE OF THE ACTIVITIES WAS RELATED TO A MULTI-PURPOSE CENTER OR CAMPUS FACILITY, USE THE FOLLOWING TEXT]

Because you indicated on the web survey that this activity was part of a larger [MULTI-PURPOSE CENTER/CAMPUS FACILITY], we will also be discussing the other activities that were related to this (center/facility).

If there are other activities that you also would like to discuss during the interview, please let me know. We are happy to provide an opportunity for you to share this information with us at the end of the interview.

The interview will take about 45 minutes. Would you be available [DATE] for this interview? If you are unavailable on this date, please send a few dates and times that will work for you.

To give you an idea of the structure of the call, we will be gathering information on:

• Intended and actual beneficiaries of [ACTIVITY X] and [ACTIVITY Y]

• Your institution’s goals and accomplishments, including measurable outputs and outcomes, related to [ACTIVITY X] and [ACTIVITY Y]

Please see attached list of outputs and outcomes (FORM 1) we anticipate you might be able to report on – this list has been customized to your grant activities based on the information you provided to us in the web survey. If you have additional outcomes to report that are not on the attached list, please be prepared to share these as well. Our list is just a starting point to help facilitate the conversation.

• The ways in which your institution benefited from [ACTIVITY X] and [ACTIVITY Y]

• The ways in which partners worked together to implement project activities

• Your institution’s specific role in any partnerships, including the roles of key participant groups from the university (e.g. faculty, students, administrators, etc.)

• The ratio of OUP funding to the total activity budgets

• Challenges your institution faced in implementing [ACTIVITY X] and [ACTIVITY Y]

• The ways in which each activity fit within larger college/university projects and or community revitalization efforts

If there are additional people that you would like to involve in the conversation to answer these questions, please send me their names and telephone numbers and I will try to coordinate a time with all of you. Ultimately, the person or people involved in the telephone interview should be able to describe the outcomes achieved as a result of the grants, as well as any problems or challenges your institution faced during implementation.

Thanks, and I look forward to speaking with you soon,

[NAME]

Abt Associates Inc. Appendix 3: Emails from Abt to Grantees 6