SIF Classic National Assessment - Issue Briefs

The Issue Briefs are part of the National Assessment of the SIF Classic Program commissioned by AmeriCorps (formerly the Corporation for National and Community Service) and conducted by ICF International.  The assessment focused on SIF Classic grantees’ adoption of evidence-based grantmaking strategies, ability, and willingness to build the evidence base for the service models they support, to scale the service models, and to use collaborative approaches to address local community needs. The study found promising evidence of improved organizational capacities among the SIF Classic grantees in almost all of these areas. These partner organizations changed more and faster compared to other grantmakers and programs while SIF grantees reported that the SIF program was instrumental in bringing about these changes.

• Issue Brief #1: Partnering for Success in the Social Innovation Fund – This issue brief shares lessons about how the SIF intermediary grantees collaborate with a host of partners at multiple levels to implement their programs. It provides action-oriented recommendations for current, incoming, and prospective SIF grantees, private and nonprofit organizations that might implement a SIF model, and policy makers.
• Issue Brief #2: Building SIF Subgrantee Capacity for Scale, Evidence, and Impact – This issue brief shares lessons about how the SIF builds capacity within its stakeholder organizations in order to strengthen them and enhance their impact. It provides action-oriented recommendations for current, incoming, and prospective SIF grantees, private and nonprofit organizations that might implement a SIF model, and policy makers.
• Issue Brief #3: Using Data to Improve SIF Programs: Lessons from Practitioners – This issue brief shares lessons about how SIF grantees and subgrantees use data to improve their programs. It provides action-oriented recommendations for current, incoming, and prospective SIF grantees, private and nonprofit organizations that might implement a SIF model, and policy makers.
• Issue Brief #4: Evidence of Organizational Change among SIF Grantees – This issue brief shares lessons about changes in SIF grantees’ organizational capacity – infrastructure, skills, attitudes, and behaviors – to carry out their work as grantmaking organizations. Organizational change occurred to conduct and use evaluations, scale promising programs, and select and support subgrantees in ways that build the evidence base for promising community interventions.
• Issue Brief #5: Designing and Implementing Rigorous Evaluation for the Social Innovation Fund – This issue brief shares best practices and lessons about how SIF grantees and subgrantees strive to conduct rigorous third-party evaluations. It provides action-oriented recommendations for current SIF grantees, nonprofit organizations, and policy makers. This brief is informed by interviews with four SIF grantees (also known as intermediaries), two subgrantees, and four evaluators, as well as insights gleaned from other SIF-related sources, including document reviews and interviews conducted for other briefs.
• Issue Brief #6: Funder Participation in the Social Innovation Fund – This issue brief explores the relationships between SIF Classic grantees and subgrantees and their match funders. It also provides action-oriented recommendations for current SIF grantees, subgrantees, and match funders; other grantmakers and grantee partners considering a SIF-type model; nonprofit organizations; and policy makers. This brief is informed by interviews with three SIF grantee organizations (also referred to as intermediaries), three subgrantees, and five match funders.
• Issue Brief #7: Scaling Programs and Growing Impact with the Social Innovation Fund – Scaling was one of the SIF’s pillars and addressed its goal of “finding what works, and making it work for more people,”—growing the impact of the work. Specifically, the Congressional authorization required grantees to use funds received through the SIF to "make subgrants to community organizations that will use the funds to replicate or expand proven initiatives, or support new initiatives, in low-income communities.” Results from the SIF National Assessment’s grantee survey showed that SIF grantees increased their reliance on rigorous evaluation as a basis for selecting programs to scale up. This issue brief shares best practices and lessons about ways that SIF grantees and their subgrantees used evidence of effectiveness to deepen or broaden their impact.
• Issue Brief #8: Sustaining Evidence-Based Work after the SIF – This issue brief shares best practices and lessons about ways that SIF Classic grantees and their subgrantees approached sustaining evidence-based programs. The brief focuses exclusively on SIF Classic, so all references to SIF structure and its operations concern SIF Classic. The brief first discusses how grantees and subgrantees defined what it means for work to be sustainable. It then presents an overview of approaches they used to sustain key elements of the work financially, programmatically, and organizationally. The brief also includes examples of the support that grantees provided to help subgrantees sustain their programs. It presents action-oriented recommendations for grantees, private and nonprofit organizations, and policy makers.