Program Evaluation

Nonprofit evaluation planning brainstorming with hand writing 'Who, What, Where, Why' on whiteboard to define program goals and outcomes

Crafting and Implementing Effective Evaluation Plans

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Transforming Goals Into Action For nonprofits, creating a strong evaluation plan is essential for measuring success, improving services, and securing funding. In this post, we’ll walk through how to build a nonprofit evaluation plan, including both process and outcome evaluations, using real-world examples tailored to nonprofit operations. Process Evaluation Plans: Monitoring Success in Real-Time Process […]

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5 Program Evaluation Questions to Ask Your Funders

5 Program Evaluation Questions to Ask Your Funders

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Funders use evaluation to learn more about the organizations they support, hold grantees accountability, and monitor program implementation. Each funder has their own guidelines and requirements about what they want from program evaluation. By asking the following program evaluation questions, your organization can develop an evaluation strategy to address these requirements and balance funders’ requests

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6 Benefits of Evaluation

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Evaluation is a powerful tool for nonprofit organizations. In fact, evaluation is the “secret sauce” that differentiates organizations that thrive versus those that only survive. Additionally, evaluation can be a catalyst for positive change. For example, REC worked with a client for three years. At first, there were some reservations about data and using evaluation.

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Tug of War Program Evaluation

Program Evaluation: Nonprofits’ Needs Versus Donor’s Requests, Part 2

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As discussed in Part 1, there are often differences in the ways that donors view program evaluation when compared to how nonprofits wish to use evaluation (Zinn, 2017). Donors view evaluation as an accountability measure and prefer evaluations that are rigorous, conducted by third-party experts, and focus on long-term outcomes (York, 2005). However, nonprofits prefer

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Program Evaluation: Nonprofits’ Needs Versus Donor’s Requests, Part 1

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Why do you evaluate your programs? To provide accountability to your donors? To measure what you’re doing right or wrong? To gain access to more funding? Well, if you work for a nonprofit organization, you probably identified with several of these goals. However, your reasons for conducting a program evaluation may differ dramatically from that

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What is Quantitative and Qualitative Data?

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Two Types of Data When people discuss data, they typically describe it as either quantitative or qualitative. Yet, what is quantitative data? What is qualitative data? How are these two types of data different? Is one type of data better to use than the other? Why should this topic matter to purpose-driven organizations? This blog

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