Dr. Chris Johnstone University of Minnesota

Strategic donors want to know the impact of their gifts.  And rightly so. There are so many causes to give to and it makes good sense to give in ways that make a difference.  That is why ETI is firmly committed to evaluating baseline so it can get a clear picture of KARUCO’s impact from inception.  And that is why ETI has collaborated with Cohn Consulting and Dr. Chris Johnstone, University of Minnesota to design, create, pilot and conduct the baseline study on KARUCO’s impact.  Solid metrics, assessments and evaluation can provide the basis for sound analyses and reasonable program adjustments based on data and informed decisions.

The KARUCO Study will assess community impact in terms of 1) livelihood, 2) gender equity, and 3) environmental sustainability prior to opening and then for the lifetime of the university.  To begin, teams led by Johnstone will be on site in Karagwe to gauge conditions as they exist now prior to the opening of KARUCO. Only with baseline, can ETI help determine the impact of Karagwe University College and adjust its programs for further impact.  For those of you who enjoy evaluation, you will appreciate that qualitative and quantitative methods, interviews in Swahili and follow up questionnaires will be used in this longitudinal study. Purposive and random sampling will be used to select persons from whom data will be collected.  Other institutions (universities and colleges) with missions similar to KARUCO have shared their own regret at not collecting baseline data and in some cases, not collecting data for years when the school was young. ETI is listening and will begin baseline data collection in 2015.