Assessing sustainability is a key component of the Covering Kids & Families (CKF) evaluation. The evaluation team discussed the appropriate times and manner for data collection and review of this issue. or evaluation year one, the team decided to include two questions on sustainability in a survey of coalitions and not to include any related questions in the site visits.
The survey results indicate that coalition leaders are much more likely to have an opinion on whether there are efforts to sustain the coalition than grantee staff or coalition members in general. The leadership is also more likely than other respondents to indicate their coalition has begun discussions about future funding or efforts to secure future funding. This result suggests that the leadership of these coalitions has begun discussions and efforts to find future funding for their coalitions that have not yet been discussed with coalition members at large.
This brief examines the extent to which Covering Kids & Families® (CKF) coalition leaders expect their coalition and/or coalition activities to continue beyond the CKF grant period and the extent to which they have secured resources to continue. This brief also looks at coalition structure and the roles taken by coalition leaders, and examines whether these factors appear to affect the likelihood of sustainability. The survey of state coalition leaders conducted in July 2005 revealed that:
- More than half of state coalition leaders (57%) believe their state CKF coalition will continue beyond the grant period, but a lesser number (51%) said their coalition has a plan in place to do so.
- Only 11 percent of coalition leaders say their state CKF coalitions have secured resources to operate after the CKF grants end.
- More than half (55%) of the coalition leaders surveyed believe local coalitions and their activities will continue, while a third (34%) don't yet know what will happen to their local coalitions and projects.
Over the 12 months beginning July 2005, which mark the end of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funding for more than 60 percent of CKF projects, the vast majority (92%) of coalition leaders plan to continue or even increase their level of participation in CKF, a possible positive indicator of the likelihood of sustainability. At the same time, very few coalition leaders indicated they have contributed or plan to contribute funding to CKF, or plan to help gain access to outside funding.