Level Best How Small and Grassroots

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.

Marcia Festen of Marcia K. Festen Associates in Chicago is a consultant to nonprofits and foundations.In addition to conducting evaluations, she develops policy and grantmaking strategies, programs, and initiatives. She was a senior program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and hasover twenty years of experience in the field.

Marianne Philbin is a writer, trainer, and consultant specializing in nonprofit organizational development.She has worked for a wide range of foundations and nonprofit organizations, and has an extensive background in grantmaking, fundraising, and nonprofit management. She is an instructor for the Donors Forum of Chicago and a lecturer at Northwestern University's School of Continuing Studies.

Figure, Tables, Worksheets, Exhibits, Agendas

xi

Introduction

xiii

How to Use This Book

xiv

Instruction with Samples and Examples

xv

Understanding Evaluation

1

(12)

Evaluation as Power Instead of Pain

3

(2)

What Evaluation Is and What It Is Not

5

(8)

A Simple Evaluation Framework

13

(16)

The Basic Evaluation Framework

13

(5)

Key Concepts: What to Evaluate and How to Get Started

18

(5)

The Rolling Evaluation Method

23

(6)

Planning Your Evaluation

29

(22)

A Quick Review of Basic Organizational Readiness

29

(1)

Definition of an Effective Organization

30

(5)

What You Plan Affects What You Learn

35

(3)

Step by Step: Planning Your Evaluation

38

(6)

Understanding Funders' Needs and Fitting Them into Your Evaluation Plan

44

(1)

Why Setting Goals Makes Evaluation Easier

45

(1)

How You Can Prepare

46

(5)

Asking the Right Questions

51

(22)

Clear Program Goals Guide Evaluation Questions and Choices

51

(4)

What to Evaluate: What You Do Versus What Your Constituents Do

55

(2)

If or Then: Which to Evaluate?

57

(1)

The Relationship Between Evaluating What You Do (Process) and What They Do (Outcome)

58

(1)

Determine the Right Questions

59

(5)

Ask What You Really Want to Know

64

(1)

How Advocacy Organizations Can Approach Evaluation

64

(3)

How to Be Answerable When Advocacy and Organizing Are Your Agenda

67

(2)

Ideas for Measuring Organizing Efforts

69

(4)

Tracking Information

73

(18)

Options for Tracking Information

73

(4)

The Right Goal Statement Helps Determine the Right Things to Track

77

(14)

Learning From and Using the Information

91

(34)

Making Use of Your Information

91

(1)

Organizing Your Information

92

(1)

Drawing Conclusions

92

(5)

Using What You Learn

97

(4)

Sharing Your Evaluation Results with the Outside World

101

(1)

Feeding Results into the Cycle of Planning

102

(1)

Tying Evaluation into Planning

103

(1)

Deciding Where to Begin

103

(1)

Incorporating Evaluation into Your Strategic Planning Process

103

(6)

Resources

Commonly Used Terms and Their Definitions

109

(4)

Types of Evaluation

113

(2)

Sample Completed Evaluation Planning Worksheet

115

(4)

Sample Evaluation Report Outline

119

(2)

Program Evaluation Standards

121

(4)

Acknowledgments

125

(2)

About the Authors

127

(2)

References

129

(2)

Index

131

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Level Best How Small and Grassroots Nonprofits Can Tackle Evaluation and Talk Results

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials