CRRC-Georgia was awarded a grant from Open Society Foundation’s Think Tank Fund (TTF) to support CRRC’s organizational development and sustainability. The two-year project launched in January 2015 and will focus on three areas of organizational development:

• Internal development and governance;
• Quality of research and methodology;
• Communications and outreach.

In the framework of the project, an organizational development consultant will be invited to assess and analyze the organization’s strengths and weaknesses and to help develop a new organizational structure. Mentors in communications and fundraising will be brought to CRRC-Georgia to deliver training sessions to the entire staff.

CRRC-Georgia’s communications and fundraising strategies will be developed and incorporated into the organization’s Policies and Procedures Manual, thus resulting in institutionalized Fundraising and Communications strategies.

CRRC-Georgia will build upon existing research strengths and will train its staff in policy analysis methods and impact evaluation. Ultimately, mastering policy impact evaluation methods and consolidating writing skill sets, together with effective internal and external quality control and effective communications strategy, will greatly improve the quality of CRRC-Georgia research outputs, especially in policy research, leading to expanded impact.

With TTF support, CRRC-Georgia will build capacity and develop institutional strategies in critical areas ultimately leading to becoming a stronger think tank with improved policy analysis, outreach roles and greater impact.

It is our belief that mobilizing resources to improve outreach and engagement is an essential step in the development of an active and non-partisan civil society in Georgia. By encouraging data-driven policy and data open to public scrutiny, CRRC-Georgia hopes to form a pillar of this movement, contributing both to social research and to responsive policy in a way that will ensure the sustainability and relevance of our organization.