Catalyst Evaluation Group

09/30/2026

Catalyst was thrilled to be with STAND and their Appalachian community partners today to launch the VALUE Initiative work-release program evaluation.

09/23/2026

Congratulations, Annabelle! We are so proud of you. Thank you for your incredible advocacy. It’s a joy to watch you in action!

TNSTRONG is proud to congratulate Annabelle L., a TNSTRONG Alumni Ambassador, on her selection as a Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Ambassador for the 2026-2027 School Year! The National Youth Ambassadors are high school and college students who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in fighting commercial to***co in their communities.

"I am an advocate because I believe young people deserve better than a future shaped by industry influence that makes addiction easy or normalized. I have seen firsthand how to***co and ni****ne impact families, schools, and communities, while youth voices are too often overlooked. I am determined to turn those experiences into action by pushing for policies that prioritize health, equity, and accountability."
- Annabelle

09/22/2026

We are so proud of our Drug Free Dickson clients!! Bravo, friends, for advancing public health.

07/01/2026

Big news!

Our CEO Stephanie Strutner has been elected to the International Board of Directors of the World Federation Against Drugs — a global network advancing evidence-based prevention across every continent.

Stephanie has spent her career turning community-level data into policy-level change. Congress. The White House. The United Nations. And now, the global stage.

This is what it looks like when local work scales.

Congratulations, Stephanie.

05/28/2026

What happens to your evaluation when a key staff member leaves?

If the answer is 'we start over' — that's a systems problem.

Building evaluation capacity is how coalitions protect their institutional knowledge.

05/26/2026

Coalitions that outlast their founding grant have something in common.

They built evaluation into how they operate as infrastructure.

Systems don't replace judgment: they make judgment more reliable.

05/21/2026

Funders don't want to see a program that never changed.

They want to see one that listened, adjusted, and kept improving.

Documented iteration is one of the strongest things you can put in a grant renewal.

05/19/2026

Changing course mid-program isn't a red flag for funders — it's a green one.

It means you're tracking what's working, listening to your community, and making decisions based on evidence.

That's exactly what strong evaluation supports.

05/14/2026

Grant cycles end. Community needs don't.

The organizations that stay funded are the ones that can show they learned and implemented between cycles.

What does your data tell you right now?

05/12/2026

Some organizations treat grant reporting as the only reason to look at data.

But the insights sitting between cycles — patterns, gaps, early signals — are exactly what funders want to see next time.

Using data continuously isn't extra work. It's smarter work.