Public Allies External Impact Evaluation

The Public Allies AmeriCorps Apprenticeship program places AmeriCorps members with a variety of philanthropic organizations to develop new systems, conduct community assets and needs assessments, develop partnerships, and improve programming and capacity. The specific services delivered by AmeriCorps members may include: 

• Engaging volunteers
• Developing the support systems to better recruit and manage volunteers
• Developing a plan and materials to support outreach efforts to potential clients
• Designing or improving the way an organization promotes programming
• Conducting a community asset and needs assessment and supporting the development of programming in response to the assessment
• Developing partnerships to expand or improve programming
• Developing ways to measure performance or improve programming based upon performance data

Study Goals:
The goal of this study is to determine the impact of AmeriCorps member placement on the capacity of host organizations. Public Allies and the research team partnered to conduct assessments through beginning and end-of-year surveys to host organizations and a comparison group. The treatment group included all organizations that hosted an ally during the 2018-19 year.

Research Questions:
The research questions are:

• Did the Public Allies program increase the capacity of partner organizations as compared to a group of similar non-profit organizations that did not host a member? 
• Do organizations that report capacity gains sustain and leverage those gains three months after the member’s term of service is complete?

Findings:
The evaluation found the following:

• Public ally-hosting organizations reported moderate, but consistent increases in their capabilities over the course of the service year.
• Low survey response rates among comparison organizations produced data limitations that prevent estimating the impact of Public Allies with confidence.

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