Browse network evaluation Resources
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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 Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
From the War on Poverty to an Economy that Works for All This publication about the effort to reframe the "war on poverty" to "low wage work" offers an example of an advocacy campaign that monitored and evaluated its own activities. One of the lessons learned from the advocacy effort specifically is in regard to monitoring and evaluating: "Advocates and activists must be flexible and open-minded about evaluating the degree to which an approach is working or not working, if any change is to be made." Author: Shulman, Sarah Type: Research & Reports Date: Mar 1, 2006 Be the first to review this resource! Download (543.15 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) -
Get Graphic for Better Conversation Facilitation: Graphic Recording at Evaluation 2013 What is graphic recording? Graphic recording is organizing information in a visual way using words, symbols, and pictures. This is often done in real time, paced with the information generated in a panel session, a meeting, a focus group, etc. In this post, Kat Athanasides shared tips for getting started with graphic recording. Author: Kat Athanasiades Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Dec 6, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
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 -
Guiding Principles for Advocacy Grantmaking As more funders turn to advocacy and policy change strategies, they want to know what works. Instead of starting from scratch, people want to know what approaches and principles show promise. In the past year alone, four helpful resources were written to advise funders on issues related to advocacy and evaluation. These four complementary resources have been synthesized and streamlined to provide a holistic reference for what makes an effective advocacy funder. Author: Johanna Morariu, M.A. Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Sep 14, 2010 Point K Pick
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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) -
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 -
If You Build It, They Will Evaluate: Upping the Nonprofit Evaluation Game Johanna Morariu and Ann Emery discussed how nonprofit evaluation is progressing as a discipline with impact, highlighting findings from Innovation Network's State of Evaluation project about nonprofit evaluation practices and capacity. Author: Johanna Morariu and Ann Emery Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: May 21, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Intense Period Debrief Protocol The Intense Period Debrief is a data collection instrument for advocacy campaigns. It was developed in connection with Innovation Network's work with the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform to capture the intense activity surrounding a policy window. This instrument complements other methodologies, filling gaps in information-gathering that can occur with other types of data collection instruments. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Feb 1, 2007 Be the first to review this resource! Download (136.31 KB) -
Internal vs. External Evaluation Few resources exist that thoroughly and accurately describe when to choose an internal and/or an external evaluator to conduct an evaluation. This one-page resource provides a helpful, concise comparison between internal and external evaluators
Author: UNICEF Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: May 3, 2005 Point K Pick 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 -
Learning to Love Your Logic Model In this recorded webinar, Tom Chapel, Chief Evaluation Officer of the CDC, provides an overview of the purpose of logic models, how to use them, and common logic model components.
Summary from the CDC website:
It’s fun to make fun of logic models. While some of the criticism is justified, much is directed at a caricature of logic models that no model fan would recognize. In this webinar we’ll remind you:
Author: Thomas J. Chapel, Chief Evaluation Officer, CDC Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 1, 2017 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
LearnPhilanthropy LearnPhilanthropy's Knowledge Library is a resource for people who are new to grantmaking or those seeking new ideas and tools to improve their grantmaking practice. Here you will find essential learning and new research on a range of common issues and key challenges in philanthropy. Working with leading organizations across the field, LearnPhilanthropy regularly updates this centralized library with reports, tools, and other resources. Author: LearnPhilanthropy Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Sep 23, 2014 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Logic Model & Evaluation Plan Templates This handout accompanied an evaluation session for the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN), which was held in June 2014 in Washington, DC. The front page of the handout is a logic model template and the back page is an evaluation plan template. Author: Johanna Morariu, Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Templates & Samples Date: Jun 2, 2014 Be the first to review this resource! Download (120.48 KB) -
Logic Model Workbook (.doc) Innovation Network's own workbook (revised in late 2010), which offers an introduction to the processes and concepts of the logic model. This workbook can be used alone or in conjunction with the Logic Model Builder at the Point K Learning Center. Also available in .pdf format. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Dec 31, 2010 Point K Pick
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Logic Model Workbook (.pdf) Innovation Network's own workbook (revised in 2010), offering an introduction to the processes and concepts of the logic model. This workbook can be used alone or in conjunction with the Logic Model Builder at the Point K Learning Center. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Dec 31, 2010 Point K Pick
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Make Your Data Count: New, Visual Approaches to Evaluation Reporting Author: Johanna Morariu, Veena Pankaj, Kat Athanasiades, and Ann K. Emery Type: Presentation Slides Date: Oct 31, 2014 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Measuring Impact in Practice: A Case Study of The Humane Society of the United States The Humane Society of the United States (The HSUS) is the nation’s largest animal protection organization.1
Just like all nonprofits, The HSUS is accountable—to the thousands of animals it helps or protects each year,
and to the thousands of individual, corporate, and foundation donors who enable The HSUS to fulfill its
mission of celebrating animals and confronting cruelty.Author: Beth Rosen Cohen Type: Research & Reports Date: Aug 31, 2010 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Download (97.59 KB) -
Measuring Influence: Advocacy Evaluation Challenges and Successes This resource was created as an introduction to advocacy evaluation, and its intended audience is nonprofit staff with no evaluation expertise or experience. Knowledge Manager & Webmaster Simone Parrish developed this article as a synthesis of lessons learned from Innovation Network's advocacy evaluation work from 2005 to 2008. Now a single 16-page document, the article was originally presented as a five-part, weekly series on Grantstation.com in the fall of 2008. Author: Simone Parrish Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: May 28, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.39 MB) -
Measuring Programmatic Success: Tips for Nonprofit Boards Innovation Network's tips to help nonprofit board members make the most out of an evaluation effort. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: May 15, 2005 Be the first to review this resource! Download (143.28 KB) -
Measuring Social Change Investments The Women’s Funding Network ("WFN") is "a worldwide partnership of women's funds, donors, and allies committed to social justice, in particular as it relates to appreciating women and girls as key to building strong, equitable, and sustainable communities and societies."
Since 2001, WFN has supported ongoing research on the concept of social return on investment ("SROI") under the title "Measuring Social Change Investments." This paper summarizes the "Measuring Social Change Investments" research.
Author: Puntenney, Deborah L. Type: Research & Reports Date: Apr 15, 2002 Be the first to review this resource! Download (219.91 KB) -
Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy Programmes A succinct summation of an evaluation process in five parts:
- "Model of Change,"
- "What to Monitor and Evaluate,"
- "Who Defines Success,"
- "Methods for Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy," and
- "Assessing the Impact of Advocacy."
Author: Gosling, Louisa Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 15, 2003 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link