Champions Grant Evaluation Expectations

Receiving a Champions for Healthy Kids grant is an opportunity for you and your colleagues to impact the nutrition and physical activity habits of youth across the United States. The General Mills Foundation, the American Dietetic Association Foundation, and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness is committed to supporting your efforts as you build and implement innovative and effective nutrition and physical activity programs that can be sustained even after the grant period ends.

In order to measure the outcomes of the overall program itself and its impact on participants, each organization that receives funding will be required to complete specific evaluation tools provided by the Champions for Healthy Kids Evaluation team before, during, and after the grant period. These brief and user-friendly evaluation tools will allow each grant recipient to share program successes and, if needed, ask for support to address any programmatic challenges faced during the grant.

Evaluations will include:

Before the Grant:

• Champions for Healthy Kids Baseline Survey: In addition to completing the online application, applicants selected to receive a grant will provide additional baseline information during the early stages of the program. This will assist in helping to measure the overall impact of the grant.

During the Grant:

• Champions for Healthy Kids E-Check-ups: A series of brief e-surveys will inform the Champions for Healthy Kids Evaluation Team of each grant recipient’s progress. E-Check-ups will come in the form of an e-mail and will share highlights from other grant recipients to encourage learning. In addition, these evaluations allow grant recipients to identify additional need for support or request “coaching” from previous Champions for Healthy Kids recipients.
• Site Visits: The Champions for Healthy Kids Evaluation team will conduct random site visits. Site visits are an opportunity for the Evaluation Team to learn about the successes and challenges of implementing nutrition and physical activity programs at a grassroots level. In return, grant recipients are encouraged to use these visits to tap into other Champion’s resources.

After the Grant:

• Champions Grant 12-month Evaluation: An evaluation completed at the end of the grant period by each grant recipient. This evaluation tool will measure the following:
  • Target audience and reach
  • Progress compared to program objectives in health beliefs, attitudes, skills, behaviors, awareness and knowledge
  • Overall program impact including partnerships, policy changes, and other impacts on the community served
  • Level of program innovation
  • Program sustainability
  • Key learnings about administering the grant
  • Modifications in the program approach since application

• Champions Grant Ongoing Evaluation: The Champions for Healthy Kids Evaluation Team will continue to request feedback and program updates from grant recipients at various intervals for five years after the end of the grant period. The main purpose of this evaluation is to measure whether or not programs were sustainable and to measure their impact on communities. Ongoing evaluation will be conducted either by the phone or electronically.

These evaluations are an opportunity for grant recipients to celebrate their own program successes and to contribute to the continual improvement of the Champions for Healthy Kids program. In order to maintain communication and collect necessary data, all grant recipients must agree to complete these evaluation tools in a timely manner before, during, and after the grant period, as well as maintain up-to-date key contact information such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses.