Capacity-Building Projects

Strategy • Background • Next Steps • Available Resources

Strategy

Through sustained community engagement, institutions build deep, reciprocal relationships with community partners that offer a spectrum of opportunities for students at all levels of engagement. Students in the Bonner Program, because of their multi-year involvement, are able to take on increasingly more sophisticated projects, linking their learning with doing. While most campus outreach begins with direct client service, with appropriate education, training, and support, students can also help meet the capacity-building needs of local community partners.

Capacity‑building projects deepen long‑term, multi‑faceted partnerships. These community‑identified projects leverage campus resources—intellectual, technical, financial, spatial, and reputational—providing critical support to partners and rich learning opportunities for students seeking to address complex issues in real‑world settings. Students work individually or in teams to integrate their academic learning, civic experiences, and personal identities while building the capacity of organizations and collaboratives they care about.

Typical categories of capacity‑building projects include:

Volunteer Management: coordinating or managing service programs, improving volunteer supervision and tracking, and supporting volunteer recruitment and recognition
Training and Program Development: coordinating programs, developing new or expanded programs, designing curriculum, writing training or operations manuals, and organizing training workshops
Fundraising: organizing fundraising events, identifying grant and funding sources, and writing grant proposals
Communications: developing or updating websites and social media, creating outreach and marketing materials, coordinating meetings and events, and strengthening online networking and communication tools
Research: conducting community‑based or policy research, gathering and analyzing data, and preparing briefs or reports that inform practice or policy
Some students are also involved in specialized projects, drawing on their majors and coursework, to build the capacity of communities through arts, economic development, and other endeavors.

We encourage campuses to identify capacity‑building project opportunities with direct service providers, collaboratives, and advocacy groups. Direct service providers often prioritize volunteer management and program coordination support, while collaboratives more frequently request research, communications, and policy‑related projects. This reflects their distinct roles: service providers focus on ongoing program delivery, while collaboratives focus on understanding issues and advancing systemic change.

Across the Bonner Network, we seek to expand the number and range of capacity‑building projects taken on by Bonners and other students. To that end, we expect all Bonners to complete at least one capacity‑building or social action project before they graduate. Our long‑term, campus‑wide goal is that 20–25% of all students complete a community‑engaged project prior to graduation.

Connection to Community Initiatives

Capacity‑building projects strengthen partner organizations in at least three ways:

Efficiency / Efficacy: improving outcomes with the same level of resources, or maintaining or improving quality while using fewer resources
Scale / Reach: serving more people, reaching new populations, and/or expanding or adding services
Leverage: garnering additional resources, including funding, volunteers, in‑kind support, and strategic partnerships

When campuses consistently support capacity‑building projects, campus–community partnerships become more robust and multi‑faceted, drawing on a wider array of campus resources and contributing more sustainably to community priorities.

Connection to Campus AND student Initiatives

Capacity‑building projects are well suited for integration with academic courses, majors, and co‑curricular pathways because they draw directly on students’ disciplinary knowledge and developing skills. They provide “next‑level” opportunities beyond introductory service roles, similar to community‑based research and other high‑impact, project‑based experiences.

For faculty, capacity‑building projects offer concrete, community‑defined questions and deliverables that fit advanced service‑learning, community‑engaged learning, and capstone courses. For students, learning is strengthened as they tackle real‑world projects, reflect on their processes and outcomes, and see how their skills contribute to community goals.

Connection to Higher Education Initiatives

Capacity‑building projects connect the day‑to‑day work of Bonner Programs and community partners to the broader public mission of higher education. By addressing pressing organizational and programmatic needs, these projects:

demonstrate the tangible value of civic engagement by students, faculty, and staff
prepare the next generation of civic and community leaders through applied, project‑based learning
provide visible examples of how institutions of higher education can act as long‑term partners for community change

Background

In 2010, the Bonner Foundation launched its first VISTA program to leverage higher education in support of the capacity‑building needs of local, regional, and statewide anti‑poverty organizations in New Jersey. This program evolved over several phases, informing our broader national Bonner Network strategy, before it was shared with the New Jersey Campus Compact (now Engage New Jersey), which continues to place AmeriCorps VISTA members to work directly in agencies across the state to address poverty and strengthen communities.

One early goal was to develop local community‑information hubs, building on the Trenton Center for Community‑Campus Partnerships and a related effort in Washington, DC. Initially, a database‑driven website powered local PolicyOptions news and information bureaus staffed by student interns. After encountering challenges with this model, we began shifting to a wiki‑based platform to share:

issue briefs
a directory of organizations
links to information sources
a calendar of meetings and events

Click to view the Capacity-Building Opportunities Form. — *Click* *to view the Capacity-Building Opportunities Form.*

Another major goal has been to identify and partner with local and regional collaboratives. As our experience has grown, we have developed tools and resources to connect student and faculty efforts more intentionally with the capacity‑building needs of these collaboratives—for example, the Capacity-Building Opportunities Form and the Capacity-Building Project Request Profile.

We recognize at least four types of collaboratives (cooperate, coordinate, collaborate, collective impact), each with distinct goals and structures, and have adapted self‑assessment tools to help partners identify and strengthen areas of collaborative practice.

Since 2013, we have encouraged campuses across the Bonner Network to:

engage in a broader range of capacity‑building projects with community partners
expand community partnerships beyond service providers to include collaboratives and advocacy groups of various shapes and sizes

Next Steps

Our campus support strategy focuses on both sides of the community–campus partnership.

With community partners, we are:

refining approaches for identifying and developing capacity‑building project opportunities, especially with partners who are accustomed primarily to student roles focused on direct service (for example, tutoring or serving meals)
encouraging campuses to expand their partner networks to include collaboratives and advocacy groups (for example, the Trenton Alliance to End Homelessness) that are often underrepresented in traditional service placements

On campuses, we are helping to build infrastructure to support higher levels of project‑based community engagement, including:

creating academic community‑engagement pathways that intentionally incorporate capacity‑building projects, particularly through the Community‑Engaged Learning Initiative (CEL)
developing pro‑bono “consulting corps” connected to academic disciplines, in which student teams receive training and support to take on projects requiring specific skills and knowledge (for example, policy or survey research, program evaluation, marketing and communications, technology, or non‑profit management)

We are also working with campuses to design tools and processes that:

track and assess capacity‑building projects
help campuses tell their community engagement story effectively through annual reports, websites, and news stories

Available Resources

The Bonner Resource Wiki has a section on Building and Maintaining Community Partnerships and another on Managing Student Placements, each with guides, campus examples, and documents to download.

In the Managing Community Partnerships section, you’ll find definitions, tools, and campus examples related to developing capacity‑building projects and capstone‑level work
In Managing Student Placements section, find insights on matching students to partners, integrating capacity‑building roles, and supporting student development in placements
Use the Capacity-Building Opportunities Form and the Capacity-Building Project Request Profile Form, which help partners and campuses brainstorm, define, and recruit for capacity‑building projects.

These resources provide concrete examples, tools, and templates to help campuses and partners design, implement, and document capacity‑building projects that advance both community and institutional goals.