Browse Practitioners Resources
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Measuring Impact in Practice: A Case Study of The Humane Society of the United States The Humane Society of the United States (The HSUS) is the nation’s largest animal protection organization.1
Just like all nonprofits, The HSUS is accountable—to the thousands of animals it helps or protects each year,
and to the thousands of individual, corporate, and foundation donors who enable The HSUS to fulfill its
mission of celebrating animals and confronting cruelty.Author: Beth Rosen Cohen Type: Research & Reports Date: Aug 31, 2010 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Download (97.59 KB) -
Measuring Influence: Advocacy Evaluation Challenges and Successes This resource was created as an introduction to advocacy evaluation, and its intended audience is nonprofit staff with no evaluation expertise or experience. Knowledge Manager & Webmaster Simone Parrish developed this article as a synthesis of lessons learned from Innovation Network's advocacy evaluation work from 2005 to 2008. Now a single 16-page document, the article was originally presented as a five-part, weekly series on Grantstation.com in the fall of 2008. Author: Simone Parrish Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: May 28, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.39 MB) -
Measuring Programmatic Success: Tips for Nonprofit Boards Innovation Network's tips to help nonprofit board members make the most out of an evaluation effort. Author: Innovation Network, Inc. Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: May 15, 2005 Be the first to review this resource! Download (143.28 KB) -
Measuring Progress Towards Safety and Justice: A Global Guide to the Design of Performance Indicators across the Justice Sector From the introduction: "This guide is written for programme managers responsible for improving the delivery of safety, security, and access to justice in any part of the world. It should also be useful to a wide variety of government officials and to anyone interested in pursuing a disciplined course of institutional reform in the safety and justice sector." Author: Vera Institute of Justice Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jun 1, 2003 Be the first to review this resource! Download (848.46 KB) -
MEASURING SOCIAL CAPITAL: AN EXPLORATION IN COMMUNITY– RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP Large numbers of social policy initiatives and community organizations are currently engaged in “community building” efforts that seek, in part, to strengthen informal relationships and the organizational infrastructure of communities and to build the capacity of communities to manage and foster community change. One critical requirement for improving such practice is for communities to have greater access and capacity to use information for planning, advocacy, and assessment. Author: Robert J. Chaskin, Robert M. Goerge, Ada Skyles, and Shannon Guiltinan Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: Oct 1, 2006 Be the first to review this resource! Download (308.28 KB) -
Measuring Social Change Investments The Women’s Funding Network ("WFN") is "a worldwide partnership of women's funds, donors, and allies committed to social justice, in particular as it relates to appreciating women and girls as key to building strong, equitable, and sustainable communities and societies."
Since 2001, WFN has supported ongoing research on the concept of social return on investment ("SROI") under the title "Measuring Social Change Investments." This paper summarizes the "Measuring Social Change Investments" research.
Author: Puntenney, Deborah L. Type: Research & Reports Date: Apr 15, 2002 Be the first to review this resource! Download (219.91 KB) -
Measuring Up: HIV-Related Advocacy Evaluation Training Pack Summary
This evaluation training pack is published by the Alliance and the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) and consists of two guides - a guide for facilitators and a guide for learners. They are designed for advocacy and monitoring and evaluation staff of civil society organisations (CSOs) (including networks) that are involved in designing, implementing, and assessing advocacy projects at different levels. The purpose of these guides is to increase users’ capacity to evaluate the progress and results of their advocacy work.
Author: Nicky Davies and Alan Brotherton Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Nov 9, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Mobilizing Public Will for Social Change This publication, third in the series from the Communication Consortium Media Center's Media Evaluation Project, examines the dynamics of a public will campaign and offers suggestions for evaluation. The paper begins by walking the reader through the elements of a public will campaign (components such as "social problem construction" and "agenda building"), and then offers seven "exemplars." The last section of the paper discusses evaluating public will campaigns and the resulting social change. Author: Salmon, Charles T. et al. Type: Research & Reports Date: Jun 1, 2003 Be the first to review this resource! Download (149.07 KB) -
Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy Advocacy and citizen participation are now key components of most development projects. In this paper the author outlines a framework for research into these issues that will be carried out in five countries around the world (the ActionAid action research project). This paper is based on Chapman and Wameyo’s 2001 "Scoping Study," q.v. Author: Chapman, Jennifer Type: Research & Reports Date: Feb 1, 2002 Be the first to review this resource! Download (28.92 KB) -
Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy Efforts: Learning from Successes and Challenges This chapter, part of a larger workbook for health advocacy issues, details three types of evaluation used to evaluate the achievements of advocacy efforts: process evaluation, outcome evaluation, and impact evaluation. Author: Advocates for Youth Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Jan 1, 1998 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy Programmes A succinct summation of an evaluation process in five parts:
- "Model of Change,"
- "What to Monitor and Evaluate,"
- "Who Defines Success,"
- "Methods for Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy," and
- "Assessing the Impact of Advocacy."
Author: Gosling, Louisa Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 15, 2003 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy: A Scoping Study This paper is a comparison of approaches to assessment of advocacy, specifically as undertaken by NGOs. The approaches reviewed attempt to monitor and evaluate advocacy on various dimensions: type of change, level/stage of influence, participation, process v. impact, and capacity building and network development. The authors identify several evaluation tools to help assess and document incremental change. This publication also includes a list of "aspects" of advocacy work that affect monitoring and evaluation. Author: Chapman, Jennifer and Wameyo, Amboka Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2001 Be the first to review this resource! Download (840.18 KB) -
Monitoring and Evaluation for Human Rights Organizations: Three Case Studies These case studies profile the monitoring and evaluation efforts of three human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs). They are intended to support efforts within the human rights community to explore and tackle monitoring and evaluation (M&E) challenges by providing concrete examples and transferable lessons about how to integrate M&E in useful ways. The cases emphasize both the methodologies used and the organizations’ efforts to build internal M&E capacity and support.Author: The Center for Evaluation Innovation Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2014 Be the first to review this resource! Download (308.16 KB) -
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) in NGO Advocacy: Findings from Comparative Policy Advocacy MEL Review Project “For organizations committed to social change, advocacy often figures as a crucial strategic element. How to assess effectiveness in advocacy is, therefore, important. The usefulness of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) in advocacy are subject to much current debate.
Author: Oxfam America Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Feb 1, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Download (1.89 MB) -
Movement Building Indicators This tool supports organizations in their strategic thinking around planning and assessing movement building work. It rejects the notion that there is a one-size-fits-all approach to assessing change strategies, and pays attention to the processes that need to be put in place and the contributions of groups who are working deeply rather than at a scale of mass mobilization.
Four key areas of movement building are addressed:
- Policy Change
- Leadership Development
- Communications
- Relationship Building.Author: Maria Nakae, Moira Cowman, and Eveline Shen Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Dec 31, 2009 Be the first to review this resource! Download (10.59 MB) -
Moving from Head to Heart: Using Media Advocacy to Talk About Affordable Housing This case study is one of a series of media evaluations sponsored by the Communications Consortium Media Center ("CCMC") as part of its Media Evaluation Project. The CCMC commissioned the Berkeley Media Studies Group to do an evaluation of a small strategic communications campaign in Oregon advocating for affordable house issues. The case study describes the steps the advocates took that eventually led to a policy victory. Author: Dean, Robin Type: Newsletters & Periodicals Date: Oct 1, 2006 Be the first to review this resource! Download (300.66 KB) -
My M & E (Monitoring and Evaluation) My M&E is an interactive WEB 2.0 platform to share knowledge on country-led Monitoring and Evaluation systems worldwide. In addition to being a learning resource, My M&E facilitates the strengthening of a global community, while identifying good practices and lessons learned about program monitoring and evaluation in general, and on country-led M&E systems in particular. Author: UNICEF and others Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 1, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Network Analysis and Mapping with Gephi and Node XL Johanna Morariu shares two extremely useful network analysis and mapping tools: Gephi and NodeXL. She describes how she uses NodeXL for collecting, organizing, and analyzing network data and Gephi for attractively presenting sociograms or network maps. Author: Johanna Morariu Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Feb 21, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
New Research: The State of Evaluation 2012 In 2010, Innovation Network set out to answer a question that was previously unaddressed in the evaluation field-what is the state of nonprofit evaluation practice and capacity?—and initiated the first iteration of the State of Evaluation project. In 2012 we launched the second installment of the State of Evaluation project. In this blog post for American Evaluation Assocaition, Johanna Morariu, Ann Emery and Kat Athanasiades share highlights from that research. Author: Johanna Morariu, Ann Emery and Kat Athanasiades Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Mar 7, 2013 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
NGO and Grassroots Policy Influence: What is Success? This paper begins with background on methodology, objectives, and the importance of policy influence to NGOs and grassroots organizations. Subsequent sections examine concepts related to successful policy work such as civil society and social capital; present an overview of the Filipino political and social context; describe five Filipino case studies; draw some key lessons and insights from those studies regarding success factors and makes comparisons; discuss trade-offs and dilemmas; and summarize important findings. Author: Miller, Valerie Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 1994 Be the first to review this resource! Download (89.92 KB) -
Nonprofit and Foundation Advocacy Blog The Nonprofit and Foundation Advocacy Blog describes itself as "a forum hosted by Alliance for Justice to strengthen the voices of nonprofits and foundations and to provide a better understanding of the laws that govern their participation in the policy process." Online since October 2005, this multi-contributor blog offers news, commentary, and technical assistance tips for advocates and funders. Author: Alliance for Justice Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Oct 1, 2005 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Nonprofit Genie Nonprofit Genie is a searchable collection of online resources operated by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. Topics include:
Author: CompassPoint Nonprofit Services Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 18, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Nonprofit Good Practice Guide This free online guide captures and organizes good practices for nonprofits and foundations. Literally thousands of effectiveness-building tips and resources are available here, searchable by topic. Topics include:
- Advocacy,
- Evaluation,
- Financial management,
- Fundraising,
- Governance,
- Marketing and communications,
- Organizational management,
- Technology, and
- Volunteer management.
Author: Morales-Barias, Susan, et al. Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 18, 2008 Point K Pick
Web Link -
Nonprofit Rating Systems In the past few years efforts to use common measures to assess and compare nonprofit performance seem to have multiplied. Interest in comparing nonprofit performance is in a dramatic upswing, and new/different sets of common measures seem to emerge frequently. Some sets of measures have been developed for niche fields, while others seek to compare across the entire sector. As evaluators, we should be aware of these efforts and aware of their possible implications. Author: Johanna Morariu and Debra Natenshon Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Sep 24, 2010 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Nonprofit-Specific Legal Information The legal section of Carter McNamar's Free Management Library includes the following topics: Articles of Incorporation, Corporate Bylaws, Registration to Solicit Funds, Tax-Related Laws Regarding Nonprofits, Legal Advice for Board Members, Regulations About Lobbying, and Assessing the Nonprofit's Legal-Related Activities. The section also includes some general resources and links. Author: McNamara, Carter (ed.) Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Jan 18, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link