American Evaluation Association Non-Profit Foundations Topical Interest Group Meet a Member
AEA NPF TIG Meet a Member: Mindelyn Anderson, Founder + Principal, Mirror Group
Can you describe your work? Specifically, how do you connect with the work of nonprofits and our foundations?
My entree into connecting with foundations and nonprofits was through LEEAD (Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity), a fellowship program I completed at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and since then, having the opportunity to continue to build new relationships with other philanthropic partners. At Mirror Group, we serve as evaluation, learning and strategy partners to learning organizations and the communities we love whom we connect with as whole people--the technical, the lived experience, and more.
What led you to doing the work that you do now?
I am a sociologist who was always curious about the world, in particular the haves and the have nots. I felt a desire to use my gifts and talents in evaluation and data to make information meaningful, accessible, and actionable. I desired to provide insights to seed transformational change, so Mirror Group was a pathway for me to formalize work outside of the academy that I had been doing on small projects as a subcontractor. I am happy that we have a whole team now doing this work with partners throughout the nation.
And what are your go to lessons and resources that might help other members?
Definitely, the Equitable Evaluation Initiative (equitableeval.org) headed up by Jara Dean-Coffey and colleagues is a real wealth of resource for imagining what it would look like if evaluation were in service of equity in the philanthropic sector? And I find no shortage of excellent, thought-provoking blog posts, learning and reflection materials from practitioners in the field, and just a real community of evaluators, foundation, nonprofit staff and increasingly consultants who are committed to this work and are being asked the real questions about how we do this work together for transformation the sector. There's also the Funder and Evaluator Affinity Network (FEAN), which has some great pieces coming out there. I love to read Nonprofit Quarterly, for the much needed critical take on the nonprofit industrial complex and just asking us the hard questions and what to consider. There is also a book I picked up about a year ago now at a funder convening called Decolonizing Wealth by Edward Villanueva. That's a great read of really understanding the philanthropic sector, its roots, what it is and what that means for what we do today.
What's something you used to adamantly believe about the work that you're doing that you've changed your mind about?
Leading into the work, it felt like everyone that's engaging in this at a foundation or nonprofit is just as passionate about this work as I am and really wants to do it to advance transformation and liberation. And I realize now that, yes, there are a number of aligned folks and still, there are deeply entrenched systems and institutions that need to be transformed in order for this work to really take hold and sustain over time. And so it's not as if I didn't know that in the very beginning. But I think like many of us that are new to any field, you come in just bright eyed and bushy tailed. "Yes, this is everything." And then you begin to see the real opportunities as well as the real challenges on the ground. And so that's why in our work we focus on systems level change. We spend a good deal of time on culture and structure. We have those transparent conversations to understand what's the buy-in here and what's the pushback. We really strive to be an evaluation, learning and strategy partner to those that are funders and grant makers, as well as those who are receiving grants and utilizing those funds. So I would say that's something that has transformed a bit over time. Just a better understanding of the culture and politics and everything in between of this work.
With that in mind, what are the opportunities for transformation in the ways that you're talking about- that you see needed?
2020 was a year that revealed so much that was already present. But just really lifted to the surface and made transparent for many who hadn't seen it or hadn't dealt with it intently. And so some opportunities for change that I really see is through leadership. It's really about how do we proactively equip and resource leaders throughout an organization? And so I think about tons of support coming for executive directors and CEOs and board and training and coaching and leadership development and just the groundswell of staff and community that were saying we have to do something different, we have to show up differently and not just lip service. And I have a real heart for senior leaders, those VPs that are holding several posts and are privy to what's happening with their teams and community because it's front and center. They're also that buffer between the executive directors and the CEOs and might have an ear to the board as well. And so I have a real heart for how to equip our VP's to really be able to follow through with a lot of the imperatives and initiatives that are coming out of organizations. So that's one area of opportunity that I really see. Let's resource and equip those who are holding those spaces, programs, operations, I.T. ,finance grants management, just all of these things that are the form and structure of how we do what we do, because that's where a lot of change has to happen. Once you get into the hearts and minds, it's time to get your hands working. It's the systems that have to be redesigned. So that is what I see as a real opportunity.
Another one we talk about is the importance of centering priority communities. There's training work that we do with the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) and our partners there, Dr. Tracy Hilliard the Director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement and Dr. Paul Elam, the Chief Strategy Officer. And we train across the nation on Utilizing a Racial Equity and Culturally Responsive lens in strategic engagement and evaluation. And what we often hear are the pain points that people really encounter when they want to incorporate these approaches into the work from every stage of evaluation from the design all the way through dissemination. And recently, a couple of the areas that really arose for foundations, non-profits, and others in our sector were around two things. One, funder and evaluator conversations. So really navigating and negotiating what the evaluation will look like, what's required for that in terms of time, resources, staff, capacity and skill set to help better connect the dots between organizations saying "we want to do this in a more equitable way" and the real changes that are required to do the work in a more equitable way.
On the other end there's some real opportunities around dissemination. And so I say this tongue in cheek but seriously, death to the 30 page evaluation report with a 50 page appendix! How do we get this information to display in ways that are accessible to those that are making decisions, designing the grant making process, applying for grants, and implementing programs in communities? How do we share this information with the priority communities that the evaluation is all about? We are a big fan at Mirror Group of making data accessible. We believe that data is the currency of the twenty-first Century. And if we are not data literate, if we can't access it, if we don't know how to use it there are so many missed opportunities. And so we're fans of infographics, explainer videos, the powerful one pager or two pager, the executive summary memo with action items and next up resources and just ways of making it accessible. We have colleagues who do micro learning videos which folks can access on their cell phones and see a quick three minute or five minute segment on what's coming out of the evaluation. And so we're very much looking at ways to disseminate to a broad range of audiences and not just the traditional funder.
Anything else you want to add about your work or you that you want other members to know about?
I'll share this for those who may be new and emerging in evaluation and doing work with foundations or nonprofit, you know, many of us may not share this, but I'll be honest, five years ago, if someone were to say philanthropy, I don't think I would know what that is. And so it's one of those things where now being in the sector, we understand how philanthropic partners are all around this and touch many parts of our lives and are involved in cross-sector initiatives. But for many of us, day to day, we don't have a sense of that third sector, if you will. So I would just share for those that are new and emerging, feel free to ask those questions to others. I continue to ask those questions to my colleagues, more senior and seasoned in this field about what is philanthropy? Why do we do things this way? How can we imagine a new way of doing things strategically and equitably and in service of transformation?
