Category: Evaluation

What sets apart nonprofits that are making a real difference in their communities from those that always seem to be struggling? Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) demonstrates that effective monitoring and evaluation work is the answer; more and more high-performing organizations seek and use data and feedback to continually assess and improve their work. GEO argues… Read more »

Does your organization collect evaluative information that never gets used? If this sounds familiar, you may find that a qualitative analysis program called NVivo useful. NVivo is an excellent tool for gathering, collecting and analyzing data. This qualitative analysis program provides a place to organize and manage your material so that you can start to… Read more »

Are you looking for more interesting ways to share your evaluation results? The next time you are putting together an evaluation report, think about using participatory video. Participatory video brings together a group or community to tell the story of their experience of a particular project or program. For example, this methodology could be used to describe… Read more »

Have you ever wondered what’s on the minds of program evaluators these days? Tune in  to hear James Coyle and Kylie Hutchinson chat about topics, trends, and tips in the field of program evaluation through a series of podcasts called, “Adventures in Evaluation“. Relevant, practical, and entertaining, James and Kylie aim to make this one… Read more »

  Is your orgranization guilty of collecting evaluation data and then never looking at it again? As the comic above reminds us, evaluation is only useful if the information gathered is used to improve program delivery and make evidence-based decisions. There are many factors that can increase the likelihood that your evaluation findings will be… Read more »

This week I would like to share some words of wisdom from a consulting firm called FSG that focuses on research and evaluation of social service programs. FSG consultant Aimee White confesses that involving stakeholders in evaluation processes can be challenging. “Deciding who should be involved and at what stage creates complexity in evaluation planning and… Read more »

A few months ago the Pacific AIDS Network shared findings from the Community HIV/HCV Evaluation and Reporting Tool (CHERT), a survey tool that aims to demonstrate the impact community-based HIV/HCV organizations are making across British Columbia. Similarly, the World Bank undertook an evaluation to explore the extent to which community-based organizations (CBOs) have contributed to… Read more »

When it comes down to it, a program logic model is a simplified picture of how a program, initiative or intervention intends to achieve desired outcomes. Logic models are the first step to answering the question, “what difference is this program making?”.  Serving a range of functions, including program planning, program management, evaluation, and communications,… Read more »

While there are a wide range of evaluation approaches that can be used to assess projects and programs, when working with community-based issues a participatory evaluation approach is often recommended. What is it? Similar to community-based research, participatory evaluation involves the active engagement of those who have a stake the in the program – participants,… Read more »

Are you thinking about evaluating a program but are stuck with no baseline data? While this common situation is far from ideal, there are ways around it. Respected evaluator Jane Davidson shares a few tips on what to do if you are in this situation: Go to the people who were around early on when… Read more »