Featured Work.

Featured

Work.

Strategic Data Collection Coaching

Color Congress is a national network that strengthens organizations led by people of color serving nonfiction filmmakers, cultural leaders, and audiences across the United States and U.S. territories. Through technical assistance, peer learning, and capacity-building, Color Congress helps member organizations build stronger, more sustainable futures.

As part of the Field Building Fund initiative, McNeil Creative Enterprises provided strategic data collection coaching to help member organizations better understand, measure, and communicate their impact.

Our work included a customized workshop focused on using data to reflect on past work, inform future planning, and strengthen organizational storytelling. Each participating organization also received individualized coaching to develop practical data collection approaches tailored to their goals, capacity, and community.

By the end of the engagement, participants had clearer strategies for collecting meaningful information, using what they learned to inform decisions, and telling stronger stories about the impact of their work.

Participatory Evaluation of the ILI COVID-19 Relief Fund

The Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) is a national leadership fellowship created by four cultural organizations to support artists, culture bearers, arts practitioners, and change-makers through an intercultural approach rooted in relationship, shared learning, and community.

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the arts sector, ILI recognized that many artists and culture bearers—particularly those from historically underinvested communities—were being left out of emergency funding opportunities. In response, ILI created a COVID-19 Relief Fund designed to meet the unique needs of its fellowship community.

McNeil Creative Enterprises partnered with ILI to conduct a participatory evaluation of the Relief Fund, engaging fellows in documenting not only how the funding was used, but what it meant during a time of extraordinary uncertainty. The evaluation explored the fund's impact on financial stability, creative practice, well-being, and participants' ability to continue contributing to their communities.

The findings provided ILI with meaningful evidence of the fund's impact while capturing the lived experiences of artists and culture bearers whose stories are often missing from traditional evaluation. The research continues to inform funding initiatives and conversations about equitable funding, emergency response, and community-centered leadership in the arts.

The Black Report

McNeil Creative Enterprises partnered with IABD to analyze data, develop data visualizations, and support the writing of The Black Report: The State of the Union for Blacks in Dance. The report documents the experiences of Black dance organizations across the country, highlighting both the challenges they face and the vital contributions they make to the cultural landscape.

By combining data with the lived experiences of Black dance leaders, the report provides a compelling picture of the field and makes a strong case for greater investment in Black dance organizations. It has become an important resource for conversations about equity, capacity building, and long-term support for the sector, helping to strengthen IABD's advocacy efforts and its case for increased philanthropic investment, including its successful pursuit of a landmark $3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation.

National Theater Project Evaluation

The New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) is one of six regional arts organizations supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Through grantmaking, leadership, and partnerships, NEFA works to strengthen the arts ecosystem and expand opportunities for artists and cultural organizations across the country.

In 2010, NEFA launched the National Theater Project (NTP), modeled after its successful National Dance Project. NTP supports the creation and touring of original devised theater while investing in the relationships among artists, presenters, and producing organizations that help new work reach communities nationwide.

To better understand the program's impact after its first decade, NEFA partnered with McNeil Creative Enterprises to lead a participatory evaluation of the National Theater Project. Working closely with NEFA staff, MCE helped shape the evaluation process, identify key learning questions, gather and analyze data, and document the program's impact on artists, organizations, and the broader theater field.

The evaluation provided NEFA with meaningful insights into how the program had evolved, where it was making the greatest difference, and how future investments could continue to strengthen the field. The work was also featured in Inside Philanthropy in the article, "You Have to Actually Change": A Major Theater Funder's Quest to Diversify Its Decision-Making, highlighting NEFA's commitment to learning and continuous improvement.