Community-based Organizations’ Capacity to Plan, Implement, and Evaluate Success

Community-based organizations (CBOs) have the potential to promote and sustain health, prevent disease, and address health disparities, but many lack the capacity to do so. An assessment of the 20 CBOs receiving supplemental grant funding from the Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative indicated a high level of knowledge for developing goals and objectives (mean score = 3.08 on a scale of 0 (none) to 4 (extensive)) and high self-assessed abilities to conduct six of 20 specific intervention activities, including the development of community relationships and coalitions. Lower knowledge and skill levels were observed for intervention evaluation. While CBOs of this Initiative have established prerequisite abilities, they have self-acknowledged needs for technical assistance to maximize HIV/AIDS prevention capacity.