Measuring the Impact of an Emergency Cash Assistance Grant

Fall 2024

General Description

Looking for a part time opportunity to exercise your data collection skills? Are you a strong writer who would like to branch out into the world of impact reports? Look no further! United Neighborhood Houses (UNH) is looking for an intern who is self-motivated and interested in researching the impact of a cash assistance program.

Internship Position Title

Junior Program Impact Analyst

Reports To

Katie Cardwell - Professional Development & Data Analysis Manager

Bio

Katie Cardwell is a masters level social worker who has been with UNH since 2018. She started her work with UNH as a community organizer and was promoted into her current position. Katie has a background in crisis intervention, older adult case management, and project management, bringing all of those skills first to her masters program and now to UNH. She has since worked as part of the Members Services team, supporting professional development opportunities for settlement house workers, co-leading an intergenerational community center initiative, running peer groups, managing pass-through grants, and completing data analysis for the organization.

Timeline

August or September 2024 - December 2024 (timeline is flexible based on interest)

Project Description

United Neighborhood Houses of NY (UNH) is a policy and social change organization seeking an intern who is interested in using qualitative and quantitative data to determine the impact of an emergency cash assistance program that we have been operating since July 2019. For more than 100 years UNH has worked with settlement houses, aiming to make those organizations stronger, so they in turn make New York communities and New Yorkers stronger. In 2019, UNH partnered with Gerstner Philanthropies to pilot an emergency cash assistance program, called Helping Hands, with five of its settlement house members. Since then, the emergency cash assistance program has grown and currently 29 settlement houses receive pass-through grants totaling more than $1million to provide emergency assistance to members of their communities.

UNH seeks to measure the impact of the program over the past five years and produce a summative report that shares (1) total assistance since the start of the program, (2) trends around the highest need categories, (3) trends around triggering events, (4) qualitative stories of impact from those on the front lines serving communities daily as well as from community members aided by the program, (5) UNH network data compared to aggregate data from other Gerstner grantees as provided by the foundation and (6) suggestions to providers, government, and philanthropy, on ways to improve impact of the funds on the communities that settlement houses serve.

The scope of work, other than what’s been listed, is up for discussion and can be tailored to the skills and interests of candidates for this opportunity. We hope the candidate will develop the tools they will use to interview staff and gather data for this project, with support from UNH staff. However, should the scope need to be tailored down to a tighter deadline, UNH can provide the tools to gather data and create a report.

Project Outcome

UNH seeks to produce small reports to share with settlement houses, the foundation, and, perhaps government, about how Gerstner Philanthropies’ Helping Hands program impacts communities served by settlement houses. UNH will train and coach the intern on impact measurements for direct service programs. This is also an excellent opportunity for those interested in learning about settlement houses and the good work they do for New York communities.

Evaluation Criteria

If the intern is completing this work as part of a school assignment or capstone project, the evaluation criteria can be developed in partnership with the class instructor to ensure it meets the necessary requirements for credits.

Next Steps

If you have questions, or are ready to apply please contact Katie Cardwell (kcardwell@unhny.org). An application link will be provided to those interested in this opportunity.

Compensation

As a thank you for the intern’s time, UNH will provide a $2,000 stipend. Half ($1,000) will be distributed when the project is determined to be halfway completed. The remaining half ($1,000) will be distributed at project completion.

https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-internship/4150764e37ca458c99b034a51a745b55-junior-program-impact-analyst-united-neighborhood-houses-new-york?utm_source=symplicity&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=listings-api