Program Evaluation for Nonprofit Professionals

Unit 1 Part 1:Introduction to Nonprofit Evaluation

Introductions!

Evaluation is…

“… the systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics, and outcomes of programs to make judgments about the program, improve program effectiveness, and/or inform decisions about future programming.”

M.Q. Patton 1997

You Evaluate All the Time!

You’ve seen evaluation in:

• Restaurant recommendations

• Product reviews• Deciding if a strategy

worked• Decisions on bids,

proposals, or job applicants

Usually conducted for two main reasons:

1. To find areas improvement

2. To generate an assessment of overall quality or value

WARNING:

Evaluation does not solve program problems.

Only good USE of evaluation data solves program problems.

Wait…why is evaluation important?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gagilas/3710480555/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Evaluation is valuable to nonprofits!

• Understand if the program is working

• Informs improvement

• Informs future decision making

• Smarter grant applications

• Contributions to the field

• Accountability!

Evaluation is important to funders!

• Accountability!

• Demonstration of return on investment

• Funders want to address social problems

• Many funders want to contribute to a more capable, more effective nonprofit sector

• Why would a funder invest in you if you can’t show good stewardship of those funds?

How do you know your program is effective?

I just know!

But we do really good work!

Have an answer grounded in fact!