Browse Action and Improvement Resources
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How to Perform Evaluations and Evaluation Reports This Guide was prepared to assist evaluators faced with the task of preparing evaluation reports. A focus is brought to:
1) identifying what CIDA expects from evaluation reports,2) instilling a results–based approach to their preparation, and
3) enhancing the value–added of the final product.
Author: Canadian International Development Agency Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 2002 Be the first to review this resource! Download (234.54 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 -
ILAC Brief 16: "Contribution analysis: An approach to exploring cause and effect" In this brief from Biodiversity International's Institutional Learning and Change Initiative (ILAC), John Mayne discusses the steps involved in contribution analysis (including the development of a theory of change), an evaluation approach that may be useful when others are not practical. More specifically, Mayne provides an example of an evaluation capacity building project for agricultural research organizations. Author: Mayne, John Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: May 1, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Download (129.56 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 Program Evaluation for Public Health Programs: A Self-Study Guide This document is a “how to” guide for planning and implementing evaluation activities. The manual is based on CDC’s Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health, and is intended to assist state, local, and community managers and staff of public health programs in planning, designing, implementing, and using the results of comprehensive evaluations in a practical way. Author: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 2005
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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 -
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 Models in Participatory Evaluation Slides providing a basic introduction to the use of Logic Models inParticipatory Evaluaiton
Author: Douglas Bruce Type: Presentation Slides Date: Sep 1, 2011 Be the first to review this resource! Download (725.48 KB) -
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) -
Making an Impact: Impact Measurement among Charities and Social Enterprises in the UK Ten years ago, critics dismissed impact measurement as too difficult, misleading, or simply not important. Today, 75% of UK charities measure some or all of their work, and nearly three-quarters have invested more in measuring results over the last five years. Making an impact offers the first representative picture of the charity sector’s response to the challenge of impact measurement.
NPC surveyed 1,000 charities in the UK with incomes over £10,000 to understand what has changed in charities’ impact measurement practices, the drivers behind measuring impact, and the benefits and challenges that it brings.Author: Eibhlín Ní Ógáin, Tris Lumley, David Pritchard Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (726.51 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 -
Measuring and Improving Costs, Cost-Effectiveness, and Cost-Benefit for Substance Abuse Treatment Programs The manual consists of 12 chapters, starting with definitions of various cost analyses and explaining their importance. A suggested
timetable breaks the measurement process into specific tasks, identifies who needs to be involved, and presents concrete assignments for each person on the data collection and analysis team.Author: Brian T. Yates, Ph.D. Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Aug 1, 1999 Be the first to review this resource! Download (516.44 KB) -
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 What Counts: Meaningful Evaluation for Family Foundations Family foundations are in business to make a difference. As one family foundation leader put it, creating a family foundation is a “powerful statement about wanting to achieve impact.” Yet family foundations often get painted unfairly as not having impact, perhaps because tthey aren’t always very good at understanding or describing the impact they have, even to themselves.Author: Anne Mackinnon Type: Research & Reports Date: Nov 1, 2011 Be the first to review this resource! Download (569.13 KB) -
Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy Efforts: Learning from Successes and Challenges This chapter, part of a larger workbook for health advocacy issues, details three types of evaluation used to evaluate the achievements of advocacy efforts: process evaluation, outcome evaluation, and impact evaluation. Author: Advocates for Youth Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 1998 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Monitoring and Evaluation for Human Rights Organizations: Three Case Studies These case studies profile the monitoring and evaluation efforts of three human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs). They are intended to support efforts within the human rights community to explore and tackle monitoring and evaluation (M&E) challenges by providing concrete examples and transferable lessons about how to integrate M&E in useful ways. The cases emphasize both the methodologies used and the organizations’ efforts to build internal M&E capacity and support.Author: The Center for Evaluation Innovation Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2014 Be the first to review this resource! Download (308.16 KB) -
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) in NGO Advocacy: Findings from Comparative Policy Advocacy MEL Review Project “For organizations committed to social change, advocacy often figures as a crucial strategic element. How to assess effectiveness in advocacy is, therefore, important. The usefulness of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) in advocacy are subject to much current debate.
Author: Oxfam America Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Feb 1, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.89 MB) -
My M & E (Monitoring and Evaluation) My M&E is an interactive WEB 2.0 platform to share knowledge on country-led Monitoring and Evaluation systems worldwide. In addition to being a learning resource, My M&E facilitates the strengthening of a global community, while identifying good practices and lessons learned about program monitoring and evaluation in general, and on country-led M&E systems in particular. Author: UNICEF and others Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 1, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Network Analysis and Mapping with Gephi and Node XL Johanna Morariu shares two extremely useful network analysis and mapping tools: Gephi and NodeXL. She describes how she uses NodeXL for collecting, organizing, and analyzing network data and Gephi for attractively presenting sociograms or network maps. Author: Johanna Morariu Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Feb 21, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
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 -
OpenCourseWare at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health This free site provides content from some of the most popular courses at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Search for "evaluation" and you'll find course topics such as "Fundamentals of Program Evaluation." Note: This site provides materials, not for-credit courses or interaction with JHSPH faculty. Author: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Dec 1, 2009 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Outcomes Based Evaluations Using the Logic Model A training program guide about logic models and evaluation. Though developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the concepts and advice in the guide are applicable to programmatic areas outside health and mental health. Author: Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Mar 1, 2002 Be the first to review this resource! Download (866.13 KB) -
Participatory Analysis: Expanding Stakeholder Involvement in Evaluation Veena Pankaj and Myia Welsh described Innovation Network's participatory approach to evaluation, highlighting how stakeholders can be involved in the analysis and interpretation of data. They also shared tips from Innovation Network's white paper titled "Participatory Analysis: Expanding Stakeholder Involvement in Evaluation." Author: Veena Pankaj and Myia Welsh Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Jun 6, 2011
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