Evaluation is about more than just numbers. It’s about gathering, understanding and applying information to inform learning, improvement, and critical decision-making.
These resources can help your nonprofit build its evaluation capacity.
NSP Resources
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Evaluation Capacity Grants enable your organization to continue building evaluation capacity.
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CTData - Data Strategic Planning helps nonprofits improve their internal data structures and processes so they can bettter understand the resultts of their work using data.
Other Resources
- Bruner Foundation Effectiveness Initiative provides free resources for nonprofit evaluators.
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W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide helps you understand how to develop and use logic models to plan evaluation.
Overarching Evaluation Guides -
W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Step-by-Step Guide to Evaluation is a non-technical guide with practical evaluation instructions.
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The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation Data Playbook provides the building blocks organizations need to put data to work for their missions.
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Innovation Network Logic Model Workbook is a do-it-yourself guide to the concepts and use of the logic model. It describes the steps necessary for you to create logic models for your own programs.
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Principles of Emergent Learning
Equity in Evaluation -
Chicago Beyond offers this thoughtful tool for conducting evaluation through an equity lens.
- The Hartford Foundation works in alignment with the Equitable Evaluation Framework™ - a guide that helps us explore, question, learn, and unlearn in ways that help inform actions and decisions in a more equitable way.
- Using a Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation Approach to Guide Research and Evaluation (Mathematica and Tanisha Tate Woodson, PhD)
Finding Evaluators -
The American Evaluation Association Find an Evaluator provides a find-an-evaluator function on their website that is searchable by location and area of expertise.
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New England Nonprofit Consultant Directory, a consultant directory that assists nonprofits in their search for consultants for their projects – including evaluation.
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The ACE Evaluation Network brings together racially and ethnically diverse Evaluators who have been historically and/or are presently underrepresented or marginalized in the U.S. who are committed to Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE).
“Evaluation is now top of mind for everyone in our office. We discuss potential evaluative techniques when strategic planning about programming activities and new ventures, and we are confident in our ability to employ them.”