Nonprofit Leaders Share What They’ve Learned From Pew’s Evaluation Capacity Building Initiative

Philadelphia Youth Basketball (PYB), a 2019 Pew Fund for Health and Human Services grantee, uses basketball to help the city’s children and adolescents build the skills they need to be successful on and off the court—in their education, communities, and eventual careers. The organization works with young people ages 5-19, combining leadership development, mentorship, and an emphasis on physical and mental well-being. Many PYB programs take place at its new Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center in North Philadelphia’s Nicetown neighborhood, which was designed with community input and participant feedback in mind.

Ameen Akbar, PYB’s chief mission officer, and Randy Butler, the organization’s vice president of program operations and impact, credit the Pew Fund’s Evaluation Capacity Building Initiative (ECBI) with helping PYB think differently about strategic planning, data collection and usage, and their organization’s impact—and they have some advice for other nonprofits considering how to make better use of data.

This interview with Akbar and Butler has been edited for length and clarity.

Nahijee Cross Philadelphia Youth Basketball

Nahijee Cross Philadelphia Youth Basketball

Q: What’s your greatest motivator when going to work every day to advance your organization’s goals?

Akbar: My greatest motivator is and will always be the young people and communities we serve—because, having grown up in Philadelphia myself and having had similar experiences, I see myself in every young person and parent who engages with our programs. At any moment, I get a chance to visit a school or walk through the hallways of our center and interact with a bright young mind, full of dreams, or a parent telling me about their day at work; to embrace a lifelong friend walking their child in for a program; or to get guidance from one of my childhood mentors who’s still impacting young people’s lives.

Butler: Every day, I’m driven by the chance to support the spark that young people use to light up the world. Philadelphia Youth Basketball offers opportunities to connect youth with caring adults and programs that matter, with support from a community that collectively keeps young people’s light glowing bright. PYB helps each young person shine in their own unique way, and the work we do together is a constant source of joy for young people. That’s what gets me excited to show up and contribute.

Q: What practices are you implementing, with help from Pew’s Evaluation Capacity Building Initiative, that are making the biggest impact on your organization?

Akbar: We’re making sure that equity is taken into account when gathering and using participants’ feedback. We’ve shifted from traditional, top-down evaluation methods to approaches that center the voices and experiences of young people, ensuring that their perspectives and lived realities shape our understanding of our programs’ impact.

Butler: Under the leadership of our impact and evaluation manager, Sam Heliodoro, we’ve incorporated youth and parent focus groups and surveys to create spaces where young people can share feedback in ways that feel authentic and empowering to them. This enables us to collect data that reflects our participants’ diverse experiences, helping us identify disparities and inequities that we might otherwise overlook. With the information we gather, we can adapt and refine our programs to be more responsive and supportive, ultimately ensuring that our work is more aligned with the needs and aspirations of our young people. These surveys and focus groups also empower participants to become active stakeholders in developing their own growth opportunities, reinforcing the value of their voices in shaping our organization’s impact.

But our students really say it best:

“When I step in this place, I feel like I get to be a leader. It’s [only] my first month here, and I already got elected as a leader.”

“I think that PYB has impacted me a lot. … Studying highlights and plays helps me to remember that, in school, I can do the same thing. Without PYB, I wouldn't be having the same type of grades or anything, because I wouldn’t be studying at all.”

Q: How did the guidance you received through the ECBI inform your strategic planning?

Akbar: It shaped our strategy by reinforcing the importance of inclusive and equitable practices. We ensured that all stakeholders from our community were involved in the process, from young people to community members, board members, educators, and caregivers and parents. We created a space where every voice could be heard and valued. By bringing everyone to the table, we’ve not only fostered a sense of shared ownership and accountability; we’ve also ensured that our plan is grounded in the lived experiences of those most affected by our work.

In a participant’s own words:

“PYB always includes me in things. I was a part of the HoopHers program, and when I was too old [for that program], I was asked to join the Youth Leadership Council (YLC), where I get to speak at events to share my experience and opinion and help the organization make decisions. I represented the YLC in a room full of older people to talk about what programs should happen at the Sixth Man Center.”

Q: How has your organization’s commitment to data and evaluation changed since participating in the ECBI?

Akbar: It’s evolved in many ways. Most importantly, we’ve deepened PYB’s culture of reflection, learning, and growth. By reflecting on who we want to be as an organization and how that aligns with our strategic planning, we made strides in identifying what our core program elements should be and what our desired outcomes could look like in order to help our young participants thrive.

Butler: It’s also been very valuable to collaborate with peers across the region. As nonprofit leaders, there are times when we feel like we’re on an island. It’s necessary to create and participate in learning communities while trying to do the important day-to-day work of serving youth and their communities. It was essential to connect on a personal level with leaders across the region; there was a shared sense of responsibility for each other’s work and a shared sense of care for each other as human beings.

Q: What do you think is your organization’s biggest success so far as a result of participating in the ECBI?

Butler: The ECBI has played a critical role in helping us evolve our approach to demonstrating our impact on the youth we serve. This began by helping us assess our historical data, then evaluating how we wanted our programs to reflect the needs of the communities we serve, followed by enhancing our ability to tell our story effectively.

Q: What advice would you give to other nonprofits looking to use data more effectively to inform their programs, or considering whether and how to evaluate their programs?

Akbar: One of our organizational values is teamwork; we say that “We find strength in our peers and strive to create an environment that honors all of our roles on a team.” Using data requires change—and not just on the part of the individuals whose role it is to manage data and evaluation—so this is a prime opportunity to bring others along. You need to identify people who will champion this change—staff members who are trusted and who embody the organization’s mission, values, and culture. Having a diverse set of perspectives and creating a culture of learning is essential. This culture will have an impact on technical alignment and implementation; equally important, your attitudes, practices, and behaviors will evolve.

Butler: I echo everything that Ameen has shared and add that our youth, families, and communities are constantly changing—and it’s our responsibility to continue evolving with their needs and desires, and with the services that we provide. If we’re not doing the work to continuously improve—with the participation and input of our youth, families, and communities—then we’re doing an incredible disservice. I would also share that organizations shouldn’t be afraid to start developing an evaluation approach. Evaluation can seem daunting—especially if you don’t have a background in it. But when you begin to unpack the different ways evaluation can improve your organization and your impact with stakeholders, you can unlock its power to create better spaces, places, and services for everyone involved.

Philadelphia Youth Basketball received a $200,000 grant in 2019 under the Pew Fund for Health and Human Services’ former funding strategy, which provided three-year awards to organizations serving specific populations; Pew Fund began offering growth and venture grants in June 2020.