Comments on: Exploring the Non-Profit Paradox – Evaluation and Non-Profits

By: Exploring the Public Education Paradox – Evaluation and Public Education (response to Jamie Clearfield) « Evaluspheric Perceptions

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:09:41 +0000

[…] one of my favorite evaluation blogs, Emery Evaluation, featured a guest post that got me thinking. Exploring the Non-Profit Paradox – Evaluation and Non-Profits [Guest post by Jamie Clearfield] reminded me that I’ve long thought there exists a dearth of program evaluation in public […]

By: Tamara Hamai

Tamara Hamai — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:32:31 +0000

I have found that starting small and being very patient with small CBOs is effective in building good relationships. Instead of approaching an organization with the question, “How can I teach you about evaluation?,” I go into the conversation with the question, “What are you trying to do and how can I help you do it?” Initially assessing capacity is necessary to determine what an organization is ready for, but also what makes the most sense. Small CBOs may not be able to afford market rates for evaluation because they’re not ready for that scale of evaluation yet. I typically start small CBOs with capacity-building support and facilitate them through internal evaluation efforts to keep costs low and ensure that I am matching their current level of organizational and evaluation capacity. This builds trust, as the staff and management see that they are able to do more than they thought and have increased value for the idea of evaluation (because they’re starting to do it themselves). Inexpensive infrastructure building is necessary to help keep cost and burden low, while increasing the organization’s internal capacity to conduct evaluation in the long run.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:34:01 +0000

Fantastic post! We have a breakout session planned for our upcoming conference (http://oregoneval.org/events/conference/) on this very topic: Building a Culture of Evaluation in Non Profits. Will be sharing this with the group running that session!

By: Ann K. Emery

Ann K. Emery — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:24:17 +0000

In reply to Stephen Scanlon.

Stephen,
Thanks for sharing Jamie’s thoughts with your regional measurement collaborative. I agree, Jamie is spot on!
Please let us know whether you or your colleagues have any responses to Jamie’s question — how can evaluators form better relationships with CBOs/non-profits that result in stronger, more useful evaluations? I bet we can put our heads together and uncover some solutions.
Thanks again, Ann

By: Stephen Scanlon

Stephen Scanlon — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:56:05 +0000

Jamie is spot on. I am sharing this around my regional measurement collaborative in order to help us focus on the issues she has raised and with which we also struggle. Behind the tools we use as evaluators, effective evaluation – the sort that builds capacity – really is an art. It is hard to define art.