Impact Evaluation of Federation CJA - West Island

Founded in 1916, Federation CJA (FCJA) is one of the oldest Canadian Jewish organisations, which strives to unite Montreal's Jewish community and provide a central fundraising role to serve the 14 founding organisations. FCJA, with its effective network of partners, builds and sustains the community by providing principled leadership, by raising and distributing funds, and by facilitating, incubating and overseeing the delivery of services and programs. Universalia is delivering an evaluation that examines the relevance and effectiveness of the Federation CJA/West Island (FCJA/WI) and its physical space, in terms of providing value to the Jewish Community of the West Island, where value is understood as strengthening engagement, defined as philanthropy, leadership, volunteerism and participation. The evaluation will inform evidence-based decision-making of FCJA regarding the future of FCJA/WI and FCJA’s strategic planning moving forward. Universalia adopted a Utilisation-Focused Evaluation approach that prioritises the usefulness of the evaluation to its intended users, which reflects FCJA’s requirements in terms of providing learning, informing decisions and improving FCJA’s organisational performance. The evaluation draws on an Appreciative Inquiry approach in order to surface the value of FCJA/WI and its physical space, as perceived by stakeholders, while also deepening an understanding of what loss might accompany any changes to the delivery model.