Our Mission

Our mission is to increase the effectiveness of progressive social change groups by building their capacity to plan and evaluate their work.

Our Vision

• We envision progressive social change groups with the tools and capacity to advance their goals and to document, reflect upon and share the results of their work.
• We envision communities engaged in the planning and evaluation of social policies and programs that affect them.
• We envision a world in which all people, regardless of individual circumstances, are afforded basic human rights, respect and dignity.

Our History

Planning for Change (PFC) was established n 2004 by founder and Executive Director Georgiana Hernández, Ed.D, as a direct response to the difficulties experienced by social change groups in building planning and evaluation capacity into their organizations. Hernández and PFC's nonprofit board of directors believed that by increasing the effectiveness of groups that address health disparities, criminal and juvenile justice issues, economic inequities and other pressing social issues, PFC could help strengthen the broader movement for social justice and equity.

Our goal was to seek out and partner with small social change organizations, grassroots groups and coalitions who had traditionally not had the resources or experience to carry out structured planning and evaluation activities. We hoped PFC could build excitement within these groups about the power of incorporating systematic planning and evaluation processes into their work as a means to increase program impact.

In our first year, with just two part-time staff, we initiated our inaugural project with the W. Haywood Burns Institute. We worked with managers and staff to refine the organization's program model to reduce racial disparities within juvenile justice systems across the country. Since that time, we have provided long-term, intensive capacity building assistance to about eight social change organizations per year to help them carry out strategic planning projects, develop and refine program concepts, build replicable programs, and improve internal evaluation capacity.

Throughout our short history, we have made a difference by making planning and evaluation accessible to under-resourced organizations. In 2008-09, we provided more than $50,000 in pro bono support.

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Misc.

PFC is registered in Oakland, California as a Non Profit Small Local Business Enterprise (NPSLBE) and in Alameda County as a Small, Local & Emerging Business (SLEB). Note: the Alameda County SLEB designation applies to nonprofits as well.