Money pays not only to deliver prevention services and evaluate them, but also to foster strong, collaborative relationships. Ensure that all participants are committed to the services being offered, to the evaluation project, and to the consortium. It is invaluable that the agency staff, at all levels, have buy-in to the project. Involve researchers with knowledge of HIV prevention and history of community-based work whenever possible. Set appropriate expectations for research efforts and fund accordingly.
Collaborative research is very labor intensive and expensive.
Be sure to fund at a level appropriate to this effort. Actively involve funders whenever possible. Be flexible in designing and fielding collaborative studies. The researcher's job in the collaboration is to help the CBO researchers adapt and apply the most appropriate scientific tools while respecting the integrity of the intervention. Learn from difficulties you encounter in implementing research.