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Evaluating Social Innovation In this paper, the authors explore ways that common evaluation approaches and practices constrain innovation and offer lessons about an emerging evaluation approach—developmental evaluation—which supports the adaptation that is so crucial to innovation. For what kinds of grantmaking strategies should funders consider using developmental evaluation? What organizational conditions are necessary for it to work? How can grantmakers grapple with the challenging questions that developmental evaluation raises about innovation, accountability, rigor, and adaptation? Author: Hallie Preskill and Tanya Beer Type: Research & Reports Date: Aug 1, 2012 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Download (341.7 KB) -
Evaluation Blogging: Improve Your Practice, Share Your Expertise, and Strengthen Your Network (Presentation slides) Want to start blogging about evaluation, but not sure where to start? Started, but want to know what to expect (or what to do next, or how to keep it going)? Ready to take your independent consulting practice to the next level? Author: Ann K. Emery, Susan Kistler, Chris Lysy, Sheila B. Robinson Type: Presentation Slides Date: Oct 19, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Download (2.84 MB) -
Evaluation Plan Workbook (.pdf) Innovation Network's own workbook on evaluation planning. Can be used alone or in conjunction with the Evaluation Plan Builder at the Point K Learning Center. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: May 14, 2005 Point K Pick
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Evaluation Plan Workbook (in MS Word) Innovation Network's own workbook: an introduction to the processes and concepts of evaluation planning. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Templates & Samples Date: Dec 31, 2005 Point K Pick
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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) -
Funder Discussion Guide: Advocacy, Politics & Philanthropy In funding advocacy, foundations sometimes confront questions such as What’s a promising strategic focus?, How to integrate grassroots and grasstops advocacy?, orAuthor: Innovation Network and Atlantic Philanthropies
Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Mar 1, 2016 Be the first to review this resource! Download (684.33 KB) -
Funder Discussion Guide: Advocacy, Politics & Philanthropy In funding advocacy, foundations sometimes confront questions such as What’s a promising strategic focus?, How to integrate grassroots and grasstops advocacy?, or How to empower advocates in planning and funding decisions? Over the course of a 10-year effort to comprehensively reform the U.S. immigration system, Atlantic faced similar choices.Author: Johanna Morariu, Kat Athanasiades, Veena Pankaj Type: Research & Reports Date: Mar 31, 2016 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Download (684.33 KB) -
Grantcraft: Evaluation Technique Series To help grantmakers understand some newer evaluative approaches and weigh their advantages, GrantCraft has developing a collection of briefing notes. Each note explains the basics of one technique and answers some common questions about its use. A mini-case, based on one grantmaker’s experiences, is featured in each guide. Additional literature about the topic is also provided.
Participatory Action Research - Involving "All The Players" in Evaluation and Change
Author: Grantcraft Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 2011 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
How Can We Help Out Grantees Strengthen Their Capacity for Evaluation? There is a widespread and growing recognition in the nonprofit sector about the importance of evaluation--not only for measuring impact, but also for improving programs and better serving communities. While grantmakers generally see evaluation as necessary, most are not yet investing enough resources in this area. In 2014, nearly three quarters of nonprofits reported that their funders "rarely or never" fund impact measurement costs.
Author: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) Type: Research & Reports Date: Aug 1, 2015 Be the first to review this resource! Download (728.72 KB) -
How to Climb the R Learning Curve Without Falling Off the Cliff: Advice from Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced R Users R is hotter than ever in the evaluation field as evaluators are looking for ways to improve their data management, analysis, and visualizations. First-time R users are asking themselves, Is R right for my evaluation work? Where do I start if I want to learn R? How long will it take to learn R? Evaluators without programming experience are often frustrated by R's steep learning curve. These novice R users are left wondering, How can I climb the R learning curve without falling off the cliff?
Author: Tony Fujs, Will Fenn, Ann Emery Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Oct 19, 2013 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Download (229.52 KB) -
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) -
Integrating Evaluative Capacity Into Organizational Practice: A Guide for Nonprofit & Philanthropic Organizations & Their Stakeh This publication, Integrating Evaluative Capacity into Organizational Practice, was developed in response to the continuing need expressed by nonprofit trainees to further assess and operationalize evaluative thinking. It extends information first provided in 2006 in a series of short, electronic articles called Evaluative Thinking Bulletins. The guidebook is intended to
answer the following questions:Author: Anita Baker and Beth Bruner Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jun 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.87 MB) -
Introduction to Before and After Action Reviews (BARs and AARs) The Before and After Action Review is a simple, straightforward set of questions to ask before and after an important piece of work — whether it is preparing for a meeting, engaging with board members or launching into a new initiative.Author: Fourth Quadrant Partners, LLC Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Sep 16, 2020
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Key Questions for Developing Your Objectives Advocacy Institute offers four questions that advocates or organizations should ask themselves before developing strategic objectives:
- Who are we?
- What is the problem?
- What is our vision of change?
- What objectives--or piece of our vision--are we focusing on?
Author: Advocacy Institute Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 1, 2004 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Keystone's Feedback App This free and easy web-based tool from Keystone Accountability is a simple way of getting anonymous feedback from your partners on what they really think about your work. The application starts by asking you to choose from a standard list of questions, such as "How strongly would you recommend [your organization] to a colleague or friend?" Answers are on a scale of 1 to 10 or open-ended. You can also add questions. Next, you provide a list of respondents to receive the short survey. Keystone keeps data anonymous and confidential. Author: Keystone Accountability Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Oct 31, 2009 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Looking Through the Right End of the Telescope An evolving dialogue has emerged over the past few years between advocates, evaluation professionals, and funders concerned with evaluating advocacy. An earlier focus on questions regarding whether it is possible to evaluate advocacy has given rise more recently to a concern with producing innovations aimed at responding to the real and perceived unique challenges to evaluating advocacy.
Author: Jim Coe & Rhonda Schlangen Type: Research & Reports Date: Jun 1, 2011 Be the first to review this resource! Download (102.56 KB) -
Lori Wingate and Daniela Schroeter on Introducing the Evaluation Questions Checklist for Program Evaluation - See more at: http: A checklist for identifying criteras for creating effective and appropriate evaluation questions. Author: Lori Wingate and Daniela Schroeter Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Jan 16, 2016 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Make a Difference for Your Cause: Strategies for Nonprofit Engagement in Legislative Advocacy CLPI developed this resource and discussion guide to motivate 501(c)(3) nonprofits in the U.S. to include legislative advocacy as a part of their core activities. Author: Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest ("CLPI") Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 2006 Be the first to review this resource! Download (2.66 MB) -
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 -
Movement Building Indicators This tool supports organizations in their strategic thinking around planning and assessing movement building work. It rejects the notion that there is a one-size-fits-all approach to assessing change strategies, and pays attention to the processes that need to be put in place and the contributions of groups who are working deeply rather than at a scale of mass mobilization.
Four key areas of movement building are addressed:
- Policy Change
- Leadership Development
- Communications
- Relationship Building.Author: Maria Nakae, Moira Cowman, and Eveline Shen Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Dec 31, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (10.59 MB) -
New Research: The State of Evaluation 2010 What are nonprofits really doing to evaluate their work? How are they really using evaluation results? These are the questions we sought to answer in our State of Evaluation project. This blog post summarized key findings from State of Evaluation 2010, the first nationwide project that systematically and repeatedly collects data from U.S. nonprofits about their evaluation practices. Author: Johanna Morariu and Ehren Reed Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Oct 1, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Nonprofit Rating Systems In the past few years efforts to use common measures to assess and compare nonprofit performance seem to have multiplied. Interest in comparing nonprofit performance is in a dramatic upswing, and new/different sets of common measures seem to emerge frequently. Some sets of measures have been developed for niche fields, while others seek to compare across the entire sector. As evaluators, we should be aware of these efforts and aware of their possible implications. Author: Johanna Morariu and Debra Natenshon Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Sep 24, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Organizational Capacity Checklist This is a brief list of questions to help guide thinking about organizational development. It is intended for use with the Advocacy Institute's other tools such as the "Identify an Issue's Life Cycle Stage" checklist, q.v. Author: Advocacy Institute Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Jan 1, 2004
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OUT OF SCHOOL TIME (OST) OBSERVATION INSTRUMENT The observation instrument provides site visitors at the out of school time program sites with a framework to capture and rate essential and observable indicators of positive youth development. The observation instrument includes the following:
Cover Sheet: a checklist for capturing basic facts about the observed activity, such as activity type, staff roles, number of participants, and grouping patterns.Author: Policy Studies Associates Type: Templates & Samples Date: Dec 1, 2005 Be the first to review this resource! Download (133.97 KB) -
Outcomes-Based Planning and Evaluation Course This resource is an online course about Outcomes Based Planning and Evaluation ("OBPE"). It is designed for museum professionals and librarians. Modules include:
- Introduction: An introduction to OBPE, including program examples, OBPE benefits, and a list of resources
- Plan: Planning an OBPE approach to your program, including assessing audience needs, defining your solution and your own definitions of success, considering other stakeholders, and articulating your program's purpose
Author: Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, Helen J. Schwartz, Annette Lamb, et al. Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 1, 2006 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link