Browse best practices Resources
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#14ntcdataviz: DataViz! Tips, Tools, and How-tos for Visualizing Your Data [Slides] Presentation by Ann K. Emery, Johanna Morariu, and Andrew Means at the 2014 Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington, DC. Author: Ann K. Emery and Johanna Morariu Type: Presentation Slides Date: Mar 13, 2014 
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#JAGUnity2014: DataViz for Philanthropists! Tips, Tools, and How-Tos for Communicating Better with Charts [Handout] This resource handout accompanied a presentation by Innovation Network's Johanna Morariu and Ann K. Emery for the Joint Affinity Group's Unity Conference on June 6, 2014 in Washington, DC. Author: Johanna Morariu and Ann K. Emery, Innovation Network Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Jun 6, 2014 Be the first to review this resource! 
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#JAGUnity2014: DataViz for Philanthropists! Tips, Tools, and How-Tos for Communicating Better with Charts [Slides] Presentation by Innovation Network's Johanna Morariu and Ann K. Emery at the Joint Affinity Groups Unity Conference, held June 6, 2014 in Washington, DC. Author: Johanna Morariu and Ann K. Emery, Innovation Network Type: Presentation Slides Date: Jun 6, 2014 Point K PickBe the first to review this resource! Web Link -
2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study: An Analysis of Online Messaging, Fundraising, Advocacy, Social Media and Mobile Metrics... Note: This resource is free, but you must supply your name and email to download it from the authors' website.
2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study: An Analysis of Online Messaging, Fundraising, Advocacy, Social Media and Mobile Metrics for Nonprofit Organizations
Author: M+R Strategic Services; Nonprofit Technology Network Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (2.25 MB) -
Best Practices for Advocacy The ACTION Project, a group of partners in seven countries that advocate for tuberculosis control, produced this document to highlight lessons learned from its advocacy successes. Note: This is not an evaluation focused publication, but elements of it (e.g., Chapter 2) do relate to evaluation. Author: ACTION: Advocacy to Control Tuberculosis Internationally Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Nov 1, 2007 
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Best Practices for Asking Questions about Sexual Orientation on Surveys In 2003 the Ford Foundation began funding a multi-year project that sought to increase the quantity and quality of data on gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, and, by extension, on heterosexual people. Over a five-year period, many researchers participated in the expert panel funded by the grant, thus contributing to the knowledge embodied in this report.
Author: Sexual Minority Assessment Research Team (SMART) Type: Research & Reports Date: Nov 1, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (923.87 KB) -
Best Practices for Asking Questions to Identify Transgender and Othe r Gender Minority Re spo n d e n t s o n P opu l ati o n-Ba In 2011, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law convened a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional group of experts to increase population-based data about transgender people and other gender minorities by advancing the development of sex and gender-related measures (i.e., sex assigned at birth, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status) for population-based surveys, with a particular consideration for publicly-funded data collection efforts.
Author: Gender Identity in U.S. Surveillance (GenIUSS) group Type: Research & Reports Date: Sep 1, 2014 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.41 MB) -
Data Visualization Approaches for Program Evaluation (and Beyond) 
Simone Parrish writes,
"When you hear the phrase “program evaluation findings,” are you bored already? Most people—even within the evaluation field—perceive evaluation as dry. The major output of an evaluation is often a weighty report that gets read once (if at all) before it begins its long-term dust-collecting destiny.
Author: Simone Parrish Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Apr 29, 2014 Point K PickBe the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Evaluation Resource Guide This listing and description of resources has been developed to help Department staff evaluate and monitor the performance of Department programs. It also is intended to be useful for county staff and other service providers. Resources in the Guide range from evaluation manuals providing basic information to books with detailed information on specific topics such as logic models, data analysis or sampling. Also included are resources on identifying effective programs/best practices, evaluation standards, and contracting for evaluation.
Author: Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: May 1, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Download (223.14 KB) -
Evaluation: Finding a Common Ground [Slides] While common frameworks and approaches for evaluation have been developed across multiple fields, regional associations for grantmakers have, for the most part, been left out of this dialogue.The purpose of this session is to highlight the common threads that distinguish regional associations from other organizational genres in the social sector. Regional associations promote effectiveness in philanthropy by providing grantmakers with opportunities to engage with others, share ideas, and generate best practices that support both the individual and collective impact of philanthropy.
Author: Veena Pankaj and Ann K. Emery Type: Presentation Slides Date: Jul 30, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Excel Elbow Grease: How to Fool Excel into Making (Pretty Much) Any Chart You Want In October 2013, Ann K. Emery presented How to fool Excel into making (pretty much) any chart you want at the American Evaluation Association's annual conference in Washington, D.C. She shared four strategies for communicating data more clearly in Excel: 1) Adjust default settings until charts pass the Squint Test; 2) Create two charts in one; 3) Create invisible sections of charts; and 4) Exploit the stock chart types, for example, by making timelines from stacked bar charts or by making dot plots from scatter plots. Author: Ann K. Emery Type: Presentation Slides Date: Oct 17, 2013 Point K PickBe the first to review this resource! Web Link -
From Insight to Action: New Directions in Foundation Evaluation This report highlights emerging approaches to evaluation in the field of philanthropy that increase the effectiveness of both foundations and their grantees. Author: FSG Social Impact Advisors Type: Research & Reports Date: Apr 1, 2007 Be the first to review this resource! Download (3.67 MB) -
International Advocacy: Measuring performance and effectiveness This paper examines the assessment of two NGOs working in international advocacy and policy change: Oxfam Community Aid Abroad and the Foundation for Development Cooperation. The study suggests that organizations can use best practices and outcomes assessment to track the effectiveness of their advocacy work. Author: Kelly, Linda Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 30, 2002 Be the first to review this resource! Download (216.18 KB) -
Making Your Evaluation Inclusive: A Practical Guide for Evaluation Research with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people are included - but often invisible - in many evaluations. In light of increased federal attention at home and abroad to LGBT-specific data collection and the growing awareness of disparities faced by this population, evaluators must be prepared to consider how programs and policies affect LGBTQ people. Author: Efrain Gutierrez Type: Research & Reports Date: Nov 17, 2015 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Nonprofit Good Practice Guide This free online guide captures and organizes good practices for nonprofits and foundations. Literally thousands of effectiveness-building tips and resources are available here, searchable by topic. Topics include:
- Advocacy,
- Evaluation,
- Financial management,
- Fundraising,
- Governance,
- Marketing and communications,
- Organizational management,
- Technology, and
- Volunteer management.
Author: Morales-Barias, Susan, et al. Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 18, 2008 Point K Pick
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Participatory Asset Mapping Toolkit Healthy City supports communities in identifying, organizing, and sharing its collective voice with decision makers at the local and state levels. Through their Community Research Lab, Healthy City share best practices and methods for Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) interested in supporting their strategies with research that combines community knowledge with Healthy City technologies. Toward this aim, they have developed the Community Research Lab Toolbox. The toolbox presents research concepts, methods, and tools through topical guides and toolkits. Author: Healthy City Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Apr 8, 2012
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Philanthropic Freedom: A Pilot Study Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity (CGP) is pleased to announce the publication of Philanthropic Freedom: A Pilot Study, the first time that the ease of giving has been fully measured and compared across 13 countries. The pilot study and each of the detailed country reports can be downloaded for free from www.Hudson.org/PhilanthropicFreedom.
Author: Hudson Institute Center for Global Prosperity Type: Research & Reports Date: Mar 28, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.31 MB) -
Supporting Civic Advocacy: Strategic approaches for donor-supported civic advocacy programs This 59-page draft document is "a reflection of USAID’s experience in advocacy. Compiled in consultation with the top advocacy trainers, it distills the best practices and lessons learned in advocacy programming." In the advocacy evaluation section, the publication offers long term performance measures, a discussion of levels of change, and appropriate performance indicators. Author: USAID, Office of Democracy and Governance Type: Research & Reports Date: Dec 7, 2001 Be the first to review this resource! Download (59.67 KB) -
The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities: Part II - Moving from Theory to Practice This report synthesizes the results of a series of discussions that were a response to Blueprint's October 2005 report, "The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities: Strategies for a Prospective Evaluation Approach" (q.v.) The discussions centered on three key themes of the 2005 publication:
- developing a theory of change,
- defining benchmarks and indicators and collecting data, and
- using findings.
This report is organized into two broad sections:
Author: Blueprint Research & Design Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2006
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