Biography
Dr. Saunji Fyffe brings to the Professional Doctorate in Philanthropic Leadership program her deep expertise in monitoring and evaluation, nonprofit management, and research. Her work includes a range of projects that pragmatically marry nonprofit research and practice to advance and build nonprofit capacity, especially as it relates to performance measurement and management. She has facilitated training and technical assistance to nonprofit leaders taught undergraduate and graduate classes on nonprofit leadership and contributed to efforts intended to improve government-nonprofit relationships. Currently, Saunji works as a contractor in the U.S. Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). She is a senior advisor for the Research and Evaluation section of the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Analysis team. Her work aims to strengthen ORR’s monitoring and evaluation processes targeting the national, state, and local nonprofit agencies that comprise the U.S. resettlement network. She incorporated outcomes-based performance measures into ORR’s monitoring and evaluation processes, led qualitative assessments of Afghan and Ukrainian refugee arrivals, and produces reports that help ORR, and the nonprofit resettlement network, better understands how effectively they are serving their constituencies and ways they can improve performance.
Prior to working as a contractor at ORR Saunji worked at the Urban Institute as a research associate in the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. She served on project teams that evaluated federal programs, examined government-nonprofit relationships and networks, studied racial and income inequities, and analyzed trends and issues affecting the public and nonprofit sectors. She also worked on a range of capacity-building projects to help the nonprofit sector implement performance management. In addition, Saunji was part of the Urban Institute partnership that developed PerformWell, a one-stop comprehensive online resource to help nonprofit practitioners identify performance measures and effective practices. Saunji has experience serving on nonprofit boards and holds a BA from the University of Virginia, an MPA from George Mason University, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.
Education
- Virginia Tech, Ph.D.
- George Mason University, M.P.A
- University of Virginia, B.A.
Courses Taught
- Data for Good
Publications
- Resilient Nonprofit Organizations are Not Risk Adverse. (Online Article) Saunji D. Fyffe. 2019. PA Times Online: American Society for Public Administration.
- Building Evaluation Capacity in Government and Nonprofit Agencies. (Online Article) Saunji D. Fyffe. 2019. PA Times Online: American Society for Public Administration.
- Replication and Scaling Up: Using process evaluation to understand why social programs do or do not work. (Online Article) Saunji D. Fyffe. 2018. PA Times Online: American Society for Public Administration.
- Cultural Competence in Mental Health. (Online Article) Saunji D. Fyffe. 2018. PA Times Online: American Society for Public Administration.
- Bracing for Government Funding Cuts: A call to action for nonprofit leaders. (Online Article) Saunji D. Fyffe. 2018. PA Times Online: American Society for Public Administration.
- Making the Shift from Performance Measurement to Performance Management: Strategies for Nonprofit Leaders. (Online Article) Saunji D. Fyffe. 2018. PA Times Online: American Society for Public Administration.
- Strategies for Cultivating an Organizational Culture of Learning. (Research Brief) Saunji D. Fyffe and Mary Winkler. 2016. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
- Performance Measurement and Management: The Tangled Web of Nonprofit-Government Relationships. (Book Chapter) Saunji D. Fyffe, Teresa Derrick-Mills and Mary K. Winkler. 2016. Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield.
- The Nonprofit Almanac: The essential facts and figures for manager, researchers, and volunteers Ninth Edition (Book) Brice S. McKeever, Nathan E. Dietz, and Saunji D. Fyffe. 2016. Urban Institute Press.
- An Assessment of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Financial Opportunity Centers. (Final Report) Nathan Dietz, Erwin de Leon, Saunji D. Fyffe, Daniel Kuehn, Marcus Gaddy and Juan Collazos. 2016. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
- Nonprofit-Government Contracts and Grants: A state agency perspective. (Research Report) Saunji D. Fyffe. 2015. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
- Structural Barriers to Racial Equity in Pittsburgh: Expanding Economic Opportunity for African American Men and Boys. (Final Report) Margaret Simms, Marla McDaniel, and Saunji D. Fyffe. 2015. Pittsburgh, PA: The Heinz Endowments.
- Innovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Strengthening Nonprofits through Effective Cross- Center Collaborations. (Research Brief) Saunji D. Fyffe and Carol J. DeVita. 2014. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
- Collaborations and Partnerships: The SCF Experience, An Assessment of the Strengthening Communities Fund Capacity-Building Program. (Research Brief) Saunji D. Fyffe, Carol J. De Vita, and Elaine Morley.2013. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.