Are you overwhelmed on how to do nonprofit program evaluation? You're not alone. Chari's here to help! There are many ways to do program evaluation, making it difficult to know how to start. In this book, Chari outlines a clear approach, filled with real world stories as well as examples of evaluation plans, surveys, and reports. Key topics addressed: Understand how to build buy-in for evaluation and address staff resistance and make a realistic program evaluation plan Create measurable outcomes for both grant applications and to guide program improvement Develop an impact and/or logic model that visually communicates what your program does and the difference it makes Create useful surveys that measure what matters Understand the choices in how to manage your data - spreadsheets v. database solutions Basic data analysis and reporting to make meaning of your data Included with the book is a link to a companion website filled with downloadable real world examples and templates. About Chari Smith Chari Smith believes evaluation should be accessible, practical and usable. She founded Evaluation into Action to help nonprofit professionals create realistic and meaningful program evaluation processes. She has taught several workshops helping nonprofit professionals understand the value and use of program evaluation. She is also a wife, mother, jazz pianist, singer/songwriter, and devoted yogi. Here's What People Are Saying about Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple The ability to measure impact and share that success with the world is foundational to a thriving nonprofit and unlocks doors leading to visibility and funding. Leaders mistakenly believe that the process is too expensive, too timing consuming or that their kind of work can't be measured. Chari's approach to program evaluation will bust these myths and unlock these doors - offering a simple and accessible approach to your efforts to invite more people to know more and do more for your cause. Joan Garry Author of Nonprofits are Messy Principal at Joan Garry Consulting and Founder of Nonprofit Leadership Lab Understanding your organization's impact requires using data to learn and improve on a regular basis and that can be a daunting task. In this book, Chari Smith has demystified the process of creating an effective evaluation process for nonprofits. The book offers many practical tips that will help your organization improve results. Beth Kanter Virtual Facilitator, Trainer, and Author www.bethkanter.org Making the complex simple, the complicated doable, the abstract concrete, and the frightening friendly takes a special combination of expertise, experience, and communications skill. Chari Smith brings all that and more to this accessible, important, and insightful book. Read, learn, and engage. Michael Quinn Patton Founder and CEO Utilization-Focused Evaluation This book provides an excellent blueprint for nonprofits to follow as Smith outlines all the necessary steps to get from the idea phase of evaluation to creating reports and communicating the data in a way that shows impact of your program(s) that stakeholders, community members and funders will all understand and appreciate. Jean Hansen Vice President - School Partnerships and Youth Outreach Special Olympics Oregon

Are you overwhelmed on how to do nonprofit program evaluation? You're not alone. Chari's here to help! There are many ways to do program evaluation, making it difficult to know how to start. In this book, Chari outlines a clear approach, filled with real world stories as well as examples of evaluation plans, surveys, and reports. Key topics addressed: Understand how to build buy-in for evaluation and address staff resistance and make a realistic program evaluation plan Create measurable outcomes for both grant applications and to guide program improvement Develop an impact and/or logic model that visually communicates what your program does and the difference it makes Create useful surveys that measure what matters Understand the choices in how to manage your data - spreadsheets v. database solutions Basic data analysis and reporting to make meaning of your data Included with the book is a link to a companion website filled with downloadable real world examples and templates.

Identifying, measuring and improving social impact is a significant challenge for corporate and private foundations, charities, NGOs and corporations. How best to balance possible social and environmental benefits (and costs) against one another? How does one bring clarity to multiple possibilities and opportunities? Based on years of work and new field studies from around the globe, the authors have written a book for managers that is grounded in the best academic and managerial research.It is a practical guide that describes the steps needed for identifying, measuring and improving social impact. This approach is useful in maximizing the impact of different types of investments, including grants and donations, impact investments, and commercial investments.With numerous examples of actual organizational approaches, research into more than fifty organizations, and extensive practical guidance and best practices, Measuring and Improving Social Impacts fills a critical gap.

The leading program evaluation reference, updated with the latest tools and techniques The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation provides tools for managers and evaluators to address questions about the performance of public and nonprofit programs. Neatly integrating authoritative, high-level information with practicality and readability, this guide gives you the tools and processes you need to analyze your program's operations and outcomes more accurately. This new fourth edition has been thoroughly updated and revised, with new coverage of the latest evaluation methods, including: Culturally responsive evaluation Adopting designs and tools to evaluate multi-service community change programs Using role playing to collect data Using cognitive interviewing to pre-test surveys Coding qualitative data You'll discover robust analysis methods that produce a more accurate picture of program results, and learn how to trace causality back to the source to see how much of the outcome can be directly attributed to the program. Written by award-winning experts at the top of the field, this book also contains contributions from the leading evaluation authorities among academics and practitioners to provide the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference on the topic. Valid and reliable data constitute the bedrock of accurate analysis, and since funding relies more heavily on program analysis than ever before, you cannot afford to rely on weak or outdated methods. This book gives you expert insight and leading edge tools that help you paint a more accurate picture of your program's processes and results, including: Obtaining valid, reliable, and credible performance data Engaging and working with stakeholders to design valuable evaluations and performance monitoring systems Assessing program outcomes and tracing desired outcomes to program activities Providing robust analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data Governmental bodies, foundations, individual donors, and other funding bodies are increasingly demanding information on the use of program funds and program results. The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation shows you how to collect and present valid and reliable data about programs.

The leading program evaluation reference, updated with the latest tools and techniques The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation provides tools for managers and evaluators to address questions about the performance of public and nonprofit programs. Neatly integrating authoritative, high-level information with practicality and readability, this guide gives you the tools and processes you need to analyze your program's operations and outcomes more accurately. This new fourth edition has been thoroughly updated and revised, with new coverage of the latest evaluation methods, including: Culturally responsive evaluation Adopting designs and tools to evaluate multi-service community change programs Using role playing to collect data Using cognitive interviewing to pre-test surveys Coding qualitative data You'll discover robust analysis methods that produce a more accurate picture of program results, and learn how to trace causality back to the source to see how much of the outcome can be directly attributed to the program. Written by award-winning experts at the top of the field, this book also contains contributions from the leading evaluation authorities among academics and practitioners to provide the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference on the topic. Valid and reliable data constitute the bedrock of accurate analysis, and since funding relies more heavily on program analysis than ever before, you cannot afford to rely on weak or outdated methods. This book gives you expert insight and leading edge tools that help you paint a more accurate picture of your program's processes and results, including: Obtaining valid, reliable, and credible performance data Engaging and working with stakeholders to design valuable evaluations and performance monitoring systems Assessing program outcomes and tracing desired outcomes to program activities Providing robust analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data Governmental bodies, foundations, individual donors, and other funding bodies are increasingly demanding information on the use of program funds and program results. The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation shows you how to collect and present valid and reliable data about programs.

Level Best offers guidance that demystifies evaluation and takes into account the unique challenges and realities of grassroots nonprofit organizations. It provides a new framework for thinking about evaluation and tools for measuring and sharing results in ways that are practical, efficient, and meaningful.

An invaluable guide to the outcome-based tools needed to help nonprofit organizations increase their effectiveness The Nonprofit Outcomes Toolbox identifies stages in the use of outcomes and shows you how to use specific facets of existing outcome models to improve performance and achieve meaningful results. Going beyond the familiar limits of the sector, this volume also illustrates how tools and approaches long in use in the corporate sector can be of great analytical and practical use to nonprofit, philanthropic, and governmental organizations . An outstanding resource for organizational and program leaders interested in improving performance, there is nothing else like this work currently available. Shows how to identify and set meaningful, sustainable outcomes Illustrates how to track and manage with outcomes Offers guidance in assessing capacity, and using outcome-based communications Features a companion Web site with the tools found in this book Providing the tools and explanations needed to achieve program success, this book is a complete resource for the nonprofit, governmental, or philanthropic professional striving for greater effectiveness in programs or organizations.

This book begins with the context of an agency-based evaluation and describes the method within that context. Students will gain a more complete understanding of this contextual challenge and will learn techniques for operating in the face of these challenges.

Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement: An Introduction to Practice, Second Edition offers an accessible, practical introduction to program evaluation and performance measurement for public and non-profit organizations, and has been extensively updated since the first edition. Using examples, it covers topics in a detailed fashion, making it a useful guide for students as well as practitioners who are participating in program evaluations or constructing and implementing performance measurement systems. Authors James C. McDavid, Irene Huse, and Laura R. L. Hawthorn guide readers through conducting quantitative and qualitative program evaluations, needs assessments, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses, as well as constructing, implementing and using performance measurement systems. The importance of professional judgment is highlighted throughout the book as an intrinsic feature of evaluation practice.