Impact and Evaluation

Through grantmaking, the ProVeg Grants Program has reached countless members of the public, corporations, government officials, and other influential changemakers who are contributing to a meaningful reduction and elimination in animal consumption.

Some grant recipients opted out of the evaluation survey, so we expect our reach is actually higher than what is shown.

Results for this section include only grants that have been completed by April 2022 and do not include granted projects that are currently in process.

The ProVeg Grants Program offers 5 types of grants and numerous capacity-building opportunities.

The ProVeg Grant and E.V.A. Grant accept unsolicited proposals.  The Capacity, Emergency-Relief, and Donor-Advised Grants are available only to current ProVeg and E.V.A. Grant recipients. The capacity-building accelerators are open to everyone.

Results from this section include both ongoing grants and completed grants up to April 2022.

 

 

Grant recipient countries

Grants by Region (%)

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Grants by Global South and Global North (%)

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Grants by Grantee Budget (%)

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In addition to reach and impact we also measure the professional capacity of our grantees to gain insight on how grantmaking affects their capacity.

The capacity measure is also used as an element of our needs analysis. We use the capacity measure to determine which areas are in most need of capacity-building support, and to determine how capacity needs differ by region and organization size. We then use these results to guide our capacity-building plans.

 

Results in this section include only grants that have been completed by April 2022 and do not include granted projects that are currently in process.

To learn more details of our methodology, please contact [email protected]

 

To measure grantee capacity we have developed a Capacity Scale that is an aggregate of the following self-perception indices: financial security, impact, strong management, network satisfaction, ability to overcome challenges, and preparation for growth. The Capacity Scale ranges from a score of -12 to +12 and is an aggregate of all self-perception indices. Each self-perception index is an average score and ranges from a score of -2 to +2.

 

To better understand how grantmaking has affected capacity, we measure capacity both before and after completing the grant cycle, and compare these values. Data is collected using an anonymous survey.

 

Capacity can be affected by a variety of factors, not only our grantmaking,  and we acknowledge results aren’t due entirely to our grantmaking. However, we believe this measure does provide meaningful insight into some of the effects of our grantmaking, particularly for organizations where ProVeg Grants Program is their largest donor. Furthermore, we believe this measure provides meaningful insight into common experiences and hurdles for emerging non-USA organizations and thus evidence as to where capacity-builders can provide the most effective support.

 

Since the capacity scale is an aggregate of self-perceived measures, the risk of social desirability bias exists. We attempt to mitigate this risk through strategic phrasing of survey questions and anonymous responses.

 

In future rounds of this evaluation, we would like to measure capacity while controlling for other factors, such as participation in a ProVeg Grants Program Accelerator and receiving other additional major funds. Furthermore, we will introduce statistical modeling into our capacity analysis once the sample size of completed grants is larger.

 

 

Interpretation of current results

 

Change in Capacity by Grant Type

The above chart demonstrates how the Capacity Scale score changed during the grant cycle, it is calculated by taking the difference in Capacity Scale score before receiving the grant and after the grant is completed.  The Capacity Scale ranges from a score of -12 to +12 and is an aggregate of all Capacity Scale indices, as described earlier in this section. The above chart demonstrates the change in Capacity Scale before and after the grant is completed.

The above chart demonstrates that when combining ProVeg Grant and E.V.A. Grant recipients, Capacity Scale score decreased. Furthermore, Capacity Scale score decreased for both ProVeg Grant and EVA Grant recipients during the duration of the grant.  This decrease in capacity is an unexpected result as we hypothesized that receiving a new funding source would correlate with an increase in capacity for both grant types. One hypothesized explanation for this outcome is that all post-grant data was collected during the height and exit of COVID-19. During COVID-19 many organizations experienced a considerable decrease in programs, funding, and morale which we can assume impacted their self-perceptions of capacity. Furthermore, several organizations that receive a ProVeg or E.V.A. Grant are emerging organizations, and the responsibilities of an early stage major grant might have induced organizational stress that contributed to perceptions of decreased capacity.

 

 

Index Change in Capacity by Grant Type

The Capacity Scale is an aggregate of the following self-perception indices: financial security, impact, strong management, network satisfaction, ability to overcome challenge, and preparation for growth. Each index is an average score between -2 and +2. The above chart displays the change in Capacity Scale score for each self-perception index, before receiving the grant and after the grant’s completion.  Hover over each bar to see the key and values.

The chart shows that for both ProVeg and E.V.A. Grant recipients combined, there is a variety of increased and decreased capacity for each index. Both ProVeg Grant and EVA Grant recipients experience an increase in financial security and perceptions of impact which we hypothesized would occur with additional funding enabling increased programs. However, both ProVeg Grant recipients and EVA Grant recipients experienced a decrease in preparation for growth, ability to overcome challenges, and perceptions of being well-managed, with ability to overcome challenges experiencing the greatest decline for both grant types.  These results are surprising as we theorized an increase in funding would support an increase in other capacity areas. One potential reason for these results is that all post-data was collected during the height and exiting of COVID-19 when many organizations were experiencing a considerable decrease in programs, funding, and morale.

 

Change in Capacity by Region

The above chart displays the change in Capacity Scale score by region.  Africa, Asia, and Australasia show an increase in capacity while South & Central America, North America, Europe show a decrease. We were not surprised to see the most increase in Africa, as we have focused attention on strengthening Africa-based grantees through our ProVeg Africa Accelerator and Africa grantee needs analysis.

 

 

Change in Capacity by Organization Size

The above chart displays the change in Capacity Scale score by organization size (budget).  Although each budget category experienced reduced capacity, the mid-size organizations with a $11K – $100K USD budget experienced the greatest decline in capacity. These are mid-sized organizations that frequently have taken a major growth step with the acceptance of our grant, many have hired their first employees, and are on the path of professionalization, and with these additional responsibilities are the additional stress of maintaining a newly growing organization.  Thus capacity building efforts could be most impactful if they aim to focus on these mid-size organizations as they navigate organizational growth.

 

Conclusion

To conclude, providing additional funding doesn’t automatically correlate with increased capacity and providing capacity-building support alongside grantmaking is not only useful but essential for the healthy growth of an organization and the overall vegan movement. Our evaluation evidence demonstrates that the most effective capacity-building support will focus on mid-size $11K-$100K USD budget organizations in Europe, South & Central America, and North America. However, it is also imperative to continue capacity-building efforts for organizations of other regions and budgets to ensure they continue on a positive growth capacity trajectory.   Furthermore, the capacity factors self-perceptions of a well-managed organization, ability to overcome challenge, and preparation for growth showed the highest decrease in capacity, demonstrating the need to focus capacity-building efforts to improve management and contingency plan skills.

 

 

Capacity-Building Action Steps

Using these results, the ProVeg Grants Program is launching 3 new avenues of support for 2022: a new in-depth capacity-building Strategic Organization Masterclass focusing on management, sustainable growth, and strategic plans; continuing our capacity-building accelerator in Africa and developing Africa rural advocacy support measures to facilitate the region’s positive capacity trajectory; and further branding of our consultation and capacity grant opportunities to attract additional use by grantees. Furthermore, in mid-2021 we conducted our biannual in-depth needs analysis to better ascertain specific areas of capacity support and used these results to develop 2022 and 2023’s plans.

ProVeg Grants Program continues to remain committed to not only financial support for individual grantees, but also to remain committed to growing a healthy vegan and plant-based movement across the world by supporting both grantees and non-grantees in their overall organization health and sustainability.