Browse research design Resources
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A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy This guide provides some perspective on where the field of philanthropy has been with regard to evaluation of advocacy and policy and also acknowledges the unique issues and challenges associated with measuring these efforts. In addition, this guide serves as an invitation to grantmakers to engage in and expand thinking about evaluation as it relates to advocacy and policy efforts. As seriously as many grantmakers take their investments in this area, foundations should also take seriously the need to advance evaluation of advocacy and policy work.
Author: Prepared for Annie E. Casey Foundation Research by Organizational Research Services Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2007 Be the first to review this resource! Download (255.04 KB) -
A Guide to Measuring Advocacy and Policy Developed for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this guide serves as a broad call to grantmakers to build and advance the field of advocacy and policy evaluation. The guide includes sections on the context of advocacy evaluation and evaluation design. Author: Reisman, Jane, et al. Type: Research & Reports Date: Mar 15, 2007
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Advocacy Evaluation Update (Issue #3, March 2008) The third issue of Innovation Network's Advocacy Evaluation Update includes the following:
1) updates about advocacy evaluation resources available online;
2) highlights from the Advocacy and Policy Change TIG (Topical Interest Group) conference sessions (including research summaries and links to additional resources) presented at the American Evaluation Association's 2007 annual conference; and
3) interviews with three of the leaders of AEA's Advocacy and Policy Change TIG.
Author: Innovation Network Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: Mar 12, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Download (584.99 KB) -
Agency Experiences with Outcome Measurement: Survey Findings As of January 2000, 400 United Ways across the country were asking programs they fund
to identify and measure their outcomes—the benefits or changes the programs want
participants to experience as a result of their services. United Ways are not alone. Many
state and local government agencies, foundations, managed care systems, and accrediting bodies
have added outcome measurement to the list of performance and accountability measures
they require of nonprofit organizations within their sphere.Author: United Way of America Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2000 Be the first to review this resource! Download (209.74 KB) -
Coalition Assessment: Approaches for Measuring Capacity and Impact Why assess coalition capacity? How should a coalition be assessed? How can coalition assessment data be analyzed and used?
Author: Veena Pankaj, Kat Athanasiades, and Ann Emery Type: Research & Reports Date: Feb 4, 2014 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Download (768.05 KB) -
Current Advocacy Evaluation Practice Framing Paper Written for the Advocacy Evaluation Advances convening in January 2009, this paper summarizes the current state of advocacy evaluation practice. The paper identifies four evaluation design questions and then offers common responses to those questions: Who will do the evaluation?; What will the evaluation measure?; When will the evaluation take place?; and What methodology will the evaluation use?
Author: Julia Coffman Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 31, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (297 KB) -
Evaluating System Change: A Planning Guide This methods brief provides guidance on planning effective evaluations of system change interventions. It begins with a general overview of systems theory and then outlines a three-part process for designing system change evaluations. This three-part process aligns (1) the dynamics of the targeted system or situation, (2) the dynamics of the system change intervention, and (3) the intended purpose(s) and methods of the evaluation.
Author: Margaret B. Hargreaves Type: Research & Reports Date: Apr 1, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.63 MB) -
Evaluation Principles and Practices: An Internal Working Paper The purpose of this document is to advance the Foundation’s existing work so that our evaluation practices become more consistent across the organization. We hope to create more common understanding of our philosophy, purpose, and expectations regarding evaluation as well as clarify staff roles and available support. With more consistency and shared understanding, we expect less wheel re-creation across program areas, greater learning from each other’s efforts, and faster progress in designing meaningful evaluations and applying the results.
Author: Fay Twersky & Karen Lindblom Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 22, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.42 MB) -
How to Design a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for a Policy Research Project This guidance note focuses on the designing and structuring of a monitoring and evaluation framework for policy research projects and programmes.
The primiary audience for this guidance note is people designing and managing monitoring and evaluation. However, it will be a useful tool for anyone involved in monitoring and evaluation activities.
The framework presented in this guidance note is intended to be used in a flexible manner depending on the purpose and characteristics of the research project.
Author: Methods Lab Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 2016 Be the first to review this resource! Download (346.06 KB) -
How to Use Data Visualization to Better Tell Your Story Memos and metrics, emails and texts, newsletters and reports: Is your organization suffering from information overload? We consume 34 gigabytes, or 100,500 words, of information every day. Our brains are overwhelmed and struggling to keep up. Data visualization–or dataviz–is one of the strongest weapons against information overload. Author: Ann Emery Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Feb 1, 2014 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Impact Evaluation in Practice This book provides an overview of impact evaluation from the perspective of the Wold Bank.
Author: Paul J. Gertler, Sebastian Martinez, Patrick Premand, Laura B. Rawlings, Christel M. J. Vermeersch Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 2011 Be the first to review this resource! Download (3.06 MB) -
Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception and the Evaluation Profession Johanna Morariu describes how she explains the merit and appropriateness of qualitative designs when helping individuals and organizations design and evaluation approach or when presenting qualitative findings. Author: Johanna Morariu Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Jan 18, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Public Communication Campaign Evaluation First in the series of five papers from the Communications Consortium Media Center (q.v.), this paper is a "scan of challenges, criticisms, practice, and opportunities." Author Julia Coffman:
- Discusses recent events in the field of advocacy evaluation;
- Examines evaluation challenges, criticisms, and practice; and
- Includes sections on relevant theory, outcomes, and evaluation design.
Author: Coffman, Julia Type: Research & Reports Date: May 1, 2002 Be the first to review this resource! Download (190.47 KB) -
Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity Capacity building enables nonprofit leaders and organizations to develop the skills and resources they need to improve their work. Since each situation is unique and circumstances are always changing, effective capacity-building support is tailored to best suit the needs of grantees. This publication offers practical guidance and considerations to help grantmakers design an impactful approach. Author: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations Type: Research & Reports Date: Feb 19, 2015 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
The 6 D's of Needs Assessments This handy one-page tipsheet outlines the six D's that need to be answered for a successful Needs Assessment:
- Deficit
- Develop
- Describe
- Desires
- Duplication
- Demand
Author: Community Soplutions Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Jan 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.47 MB) -
The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities The paper is designed to outline an approach to policy change evaluation grounded in the experience of experts and foundation colleagues. (See Appendix A for the research methodology.) This paper first posits three key priorities in evaluating policy change work, drawn from interviews with grantees and staff from The California Endowment on their needs concerning policy change evaluation. It also discusses the challenges inherent in monitoring and assessing these types of grants.
Author: Commissioned by The California Endowment. Researched and Written by Blueprint Research and Design, Inc. Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2005 Be the first to review this resource! Download (2.84 MB) -
The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities Part II After "The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities" was published, the California Endowment Fund vetted the report findings and determined how to implement its recommendaions by convening a small group of foundation staff, grantees, and evaluators to engage in a series of discussions on the main themes of the report.
Author: Researched and written by Blueprint Research & Design, Inc. Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2006 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.51 MB) -
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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The Challenge of Assessing Policy and Advocacy Activities: Strategies for a Prospective Evaluation Approach This publication begins with an overview of the advocacy evaluation field, noting challenges to evaluating advocacy, the current state of advocacy evaluation, and guiding principles for policy change evaluation. The report goes on to outline a "prospective evaluation approach" which (in contrast to a retrospective approach) allows evaluation to become a management and planning tool. The prospective advocacy evaluation approach involves four steps:
Author: Blueprint Research & Design Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Oct 1, 2006
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USAID Performance Monitoring and Evaluation TIPS TIPS
USAID's Performance Monitoring and Evaluation TIPS provide practical advice and suggestions to USAID managers and partners on issues related to performance monitoring and evaluation. These publications are supplemental references to the Automated Directive Service (ADS) Chapter 203 (pdf, 264kb).
Author: USAID Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Using Survey Research to Evaluate Communications Campaigns This is the second Working Brief from the Communication Consortium Media Center's Media Evaluation Project. The authors seek to provide advice to nonprofit organizations that may consider using survey research to evaluate the effectiveness of a communications campagin. The Working Brief outlines the questions a nonprofit needs to ask in the design stages of a communications campaign to maximize the benefit of a survey effort. Author: Belden Russonello & Stewart Type: Research & Reports Date: Nov 1, 2004 Be the first to review this resource! Download (140.12 KB) -
Utilization Focused Evaluation Checklist Utilization-Focused Evaluation begins with the premise that evaluations should be judged by their utility and actual use; therefore, evaluators should facilitate the evaluation process and design any evaluation with careful consideration of how everything that is done, from beginning to end, will affect use. Use concerns how real people in the real world apply evaluation findings and experience and learn from the evaluation process. The checklist is based on Essentials of Utilization-Focused Evaluation (Patton, 2012, Sage Publications). Author: Michael Quinn Patton Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Download (595.48 KB) -
When Will We Ever Learn? This seminal report, which came out in 2006, raised important questions and recommendations for the international development and evaluation sectors. It questioned why, with billions of dollars spent on thousands of programs to improve health, education and other social sector outcomes in the developing world each year, is there little evidence and data to back up development results.
Author: Center for Global Development Type: Research & Reports Date: May 31, 2006 Point K Pick
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