'Capacity-building' is the name we give to the process of improving the skills and confidence of groups so that they can run their organisations and projects better.
A team led by IVAR undertook a study in 2009 and 2010 to help us to think about how we might best target our efforts to build capacity in small groups that apply to us. A very important question in the study is how different parties (including BIG staff and applicants to BIG) think about capacity-building needs, and how well these perceptions match.
The study includes various approaches, including:
- a review of previous studies and thinking about capacity-building, and how this relates to our concerns
- a review of BIG’s database to see whether it highlights particular capacity-building need
- case studies of twenty applicants, both successful and unsuccessful, to get a more detailed understanding of their capacity-building needs
- a survey of applicants across a range of programmes throughout the UK to test some of the ideas that emerge.
The study showed just how complex thinking about capacity-building can be. Some of the main findings and thoughts that came out of the study follow:
- we always need to think and be clear about why we are offering support – is it to help groups to apply to us and meet our priorities, or to help them to meet their own? These are not always the same.
- groups are most concerned about getting funding. Their thinking about ‘capacity-building’ tends to reflect this.
- groups may identify new support needs once they have received a grant from us.
- applicants particularly want one-to-one support that is focused on their needs. But this is also the most expensive form of support.
The full report
Executive summary of the full report
Please contact us if you would like any further information about the study.