SSRS recently designed and implemented a mixed-methods outcome evaluation for the Rekindle Fellowship to help their staff articulate the program’s intended outcomes and measure progress toward achieving them.

The Need

The Rekindle Fellowship is a Black-Jewish leadership program that works to strengthen relationships between Black and Jewish leaders in communities across the United States. Fellows typically participate in a six-week learning and dialogue program, engaging with readings and discussions to build deeper understanding and stronger relationships within their local communities.

As the Fellowship continues to grow, Rekindle recognized the need for a formal program evaluation to better understand the program’s impact, demonstrate its successes, and create a strong foundation for data-informed decision making going forward. In 2026, Rekindle partnered with SSRS to design and implement its first comprehensive program evaluation.

Phase 1: Designing the Program Evaluation

To build an evaluation that accurately reflected Rekindle’s goals, SSRS began with an intentional period of evaluation planning and design.

First, SSRS partnered with Rekindle to identify an advisory group of Fellows who would provide feedback throughout the evaluation. A diverse group of 25 Fellows took part in a structured Discovery Session designed to elicit their perspectives on what program success looks like. Through facilitated discussions, Fellows identified the short-, intermediate-, and long-term outcomes they believed the Fellowship can and should work towards achieving

SSRS then synthesized these insights into the program’s Theory of Change and logic model, creating a clear roadmap linking Fellowship activities to intended outcomes in the short-, intermediate-, and long-term. Fellows reviewed and refined these materials before they were finalized, ensuring they accurately reflected participants’ experiences and aspirations. Learn more about SSRS’s approach to participant engagement in evaluation design.

Phase 2: Conducting the Evaluation

What did we do?

The Theory of Change and logic model served as the foundation for the entire evaluation. SSRS developed a quantitative outcome survey and a qualitative online bulletin board (OBB), with nearly every question directly aligned to one or more of the intended outcomes from the Theory of Change.

An online bulletin board is an asynchronous online tool to capture qualitative feedback from participants. While the survey measured progress toward the Fellowship’s intended outcomes, the online bulletin board explored participants’ experiences in greater depth and identified opportunities to strengthen the program. Click here to learn more about the benefits of online bulletin boards.

Members of the Fellows advisory group were invited to pilot test both the survey and the OBB instruments, helping ensure the questions accurately reflected participants’ experiences, perspectives, and intended actions.

Evaluation Process Summary

DISCOVERY SESSION

• Conducted a Discovery Session with 25 Rekindle Fellows to understand what they see as short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term success for the Fellowship.

THEORY OF CHANGE

• Translated findings from the Discovery Session into the Theory of Change.
• Received Fellows’ input on the Theory of Change to further refine the outcomes.

LOGIC MODEL

• Created a logic model, which identified specific metrics necessary to measure progress towards the outcomes identified in the Theory of Change.

SURVEY

• Designed and fielded a quantitative Summative Survey to capture the metrics identified in the Logic Model.
• Received Fellows’ feedback on the survey and refined wording before fielding.

ONLINE BULLETIN BOARD

• Designed a qualitative protocol to expand on findings from the Summative Survey.
• Received Fellows’ feedback on the board, then refined formatting before fielding.

What did we ask?

Survey questions focused on participants’ experiences during the Fellowship and in the months afterward, including changes in their attitudes, knowledge, relationships, and confidence. The survey also explored participants’ interest in future alumni programming and opportunities for continued engagement.

For some outcomes, the evaluation measured perceived changes from before to after participating in the Fellowship. For other outcomes, particularly longer-term ones, the evaluation established baseline measures that Rekindle can use to track progress in future years.

The online bulletin board, conducted shortly after fielding the survey, asked participants to describe the most meaningful aspects of the Fellowship, identify opportunities to improve recruitment, and share ideas for strengthening alumni programming.

Who responded?

The outcome survey was completed by Fellows representing all of Rekindle’s cohorts and local chapters. Respondents to the outcome survey who expressed interest in further participation were invited to share additional feedback in the online bulletin board.

How did we analyze the data?

SSRS analyzed both the quantitative and qualitative findings using the Theory of Change as the organizing framework. Results were synthesized according to each intended outcome, allowing Rekindle to understand where the Fellowship is already making meaningful progress and where additional programming or supports are needed to achieve intended outcomes in the future. Data were analyzed by participant segments to identify differences in outcomes between Black Fellows and Jewish Fellows, and differences between participants from each participating community.

What did we learn?

The evaluation demonstrated that Rekindle is already making meaningful progress toward many of its intended outcomes. For example, the outcome survey identified that after participating in the Fellowship, more Fellows said they had relationships with someone from the other community, and Fellows were more likely to describe themselves as bridge-builders between the two communities.

The evaluation also provided the organization with a sustainable framework for continuing to measure progress towards their intended outcomes. Beyond documenting current successes, the evaluation established the framework, tools, and baseline measures Rekindle will use to measure impact consistently over time. SSRS also helped Rekindle build their evaluation capacity by creating a toolkit of all the evaluation tools and resources and training staff on how to administer the evaluation themselves in the future.

The Bottom Line

This evaluation reinforced three principles that guide SSRS’s approach to program evaluation.

1. Meaningful participant engagement is not about involving participants at every stage, it’s about involving them at the right stages, in ways that genuinely improve the evaluation and respect the value of their time and input. Hearing Fellows’ lived experience was essential to designing this program evaluation because they were able to define what meaningful program success looked like. Participant involvement was not an add-on to the evaluation design but rather an intentional and integral part of it.
2. This evaluation demonstrated the value of a mixed-methods approach to program evaluation. The quantitative survey measured progress toward the Fellowship’s intended outcomes, while the online bulletin board provided the context needed to understand why those outcomes occurred and what Rekindle can do to strengthen the program moving forward. Together, a mixed-methods approach to the evaluation produced findings that were measurable, complementary, and actionable.
3. This project highlighted the importance of combining thoughtful evaluation design with rigorous quantitative and qualitative research methods. Strong program evaluation is about more than measuring outcomes; it is about measuring the right outcomes using the right methods, so organizations can make confident, evidence-based decisions about their future.