One of the best feelings in the world is the ‘aha moment.’ It’s a wonderful moment of intense clarity where all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit together and everything just makes sense. Sometimes it takes a little longer to reach these incredible moments of discovery. During a recent workshop, one of the biggest […]
There are many tools we can use in the nonprofit sector to evaluate and collect data. Finding the most effective one for the task at hand, however, can be a tricky business. Surveys are just one of these tools and may be something we’ve used over and over again in our day to day work. […]
It is human nature to want to tell stories and to share important events from each other’s lives. Whether it’s fact-based, or for the purpose of spinning a good yarn during a hazy summer night, human beings have been telling stories for centuries. Simply put, personal stories provide a wonderful glimpse into how people experience […]
Guest blog by: Martha McGuire Why do we do evaluation? For accountability? Yes. But more importantly to improve programs so they help people improve their lives. During the 2015 International Year of Evaluation, a group of evaluators came together from around the world to learn more about how evaluations can make a difference[1]. They put […]
Gathering the perspectives and interests of a full range of stakeholders may be thought of as something nice to have during an evaluation. In fact, it’s a guiding standard of evaluation and therefore essential to the evaluation process throughout all of its stages. While it may seem like additional effort and time when both can […]
Seasoned evaluators, nonprofit leaders and program staff would likely agree that interest in evaluation has grown. Once upon a time, it was good enough to do noble work – designing and delivering programs to help our community’s most vulnerable was a visible testament to our organization’s worthiness to receive much-needed grants and donations.