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Making an Impact: Impact Measurement among Charities and Social Enterprises in the UK Ten years ago, critics dismissed impact measurement as too difficult, misleading, or simply not important. Today, 75% of UK charities measure some or all of their work, and nearly three-quarters have invested more in measuring results over the last five years. Making an impact offers the first representative picture of the charity sector’s response to the challenge of impact measurement.
NPC surveyed 1,000 charities in the UK with incomes over £10,000 to understand what has changed in charities’ impact measurement practices, the drivers behind measuring impact, and the benefits and challenges that it brings.Author: Eibhlín Ní Ógáin, Tris Lumley, David Pritchard Type: Research & Reports Date: Oct 1, 2012 Be the first to review this resource! Download (726.51 KB) -
Making Change Happen This conference report discusses overall themes and topics from a November 2001 meeting of the same name, attended by forty-nine people engaged in international advocacy and citizen participation efforts. In its final chapter, "How to Assess Success," the publication discusses many of the tensions and issues in evaluating advocacy efforts, as well as the need to perform evaluations in order to further learning. Author: Clark, Cindy Type: Research & Reports Date: Nov 1, 2001 Be the first to review this resource! Download (796.03 KB) -
Making Your Evaluation Inclusive: A Practical Guide for Evaluation Research with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people are included - but often invisible - in many evaluations. In light of increased federal attention at home and abroad to LGBT-specific data collection and the growing awareness of disparities faced by this population, evaluators must be prepared to consider how programs and policies affect LGBTQ people. Author: Efrain Gutierrez Type: Research & Reports Date: Nov 17, 2015 Be the first to review this resource! Web Link -
Managing Evaluation: Responding to Common Problems With a 10-Step Process There is now a clear choice of frameworks for managing program evaluation—the managing of one or more studies or the managing of an evaluation capacity building structure and process.
Author: Donald Compton, Michael Baizerman, & Ross VeLure Roholt Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2011 Be the first to review this resource! Download (743.47 KB) -
Measuring and Improving Costs, Cost-Effectiveness, and Cost-Benefit for Substance Abuse Treatment Programs The manual consists of 12 chapters, starting with definitions of various cost analyses and explaining their importance. A suggested
timetable breaks the measurement process into specific tasks, identifies who needs to be involved, and presents concrete assignments for each person on the data collection and analysis team.Author: Brian T. Yates, Ph.D. Type: Workbooks & Guides Date: Aug 1, 1999 Be the first to review this resource! Download (516.44 KB) -
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 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. 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 1, 2010 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 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 What Counts: Meaningful Evaluation for Family Foundations Family foundations are in business to make a difference. As one family foundation leader put it, creating a family foundation is a “powerful statement about wanting to achieve impact.” Yet family foundations often get painted unfairly as not having impact, perhaps because tthey aren’t always very good at understanding or describing the impact they have, even to themselves.Author: Anne Mackinnon Type: Research & Reports Date: Nov 1, 2011 Be the first to review this resource! Download (569.13 KB) -
Mission Possible: Evaluating Advocacy Grants This article discusses the George Gund Foundation’s efforts in persuading the Ohio state legislature to create a trust fund to support low-income needs. It highlights benefits of advocacy, specifically capturing and leveraging public resources to further policy goals. The article offers several advocacy evaluation tips to funders, including discussion and agreement on common expectations between funders and grantees, accomodations for the adaptive nature of advocacy work, and focus of contribution over attribution. Author: Egbert, Marcia and Hoechstetter, Susan Type: Research & Reports Date: Jan 1, 2006 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 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) -
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 2010 What are nonprofits really doing to evaluate their work? How are they really using evaluation results? These are the questions we sought to answer in our State of Evaluation project. This blog post summarized key findings from State of Evaluation 2010, the first nationwide project that systematically and repeatedly collects data from U.S. nonprofits about their evaluation practices. Author: Johanna Morariu and Ehren Reed Type: Opinion (blog, editorial) Date: Oct 1, 2010 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 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 -
Nudging the Giant: The Story of the POLICY Project/Nigeria 1999 - 2004 The POLICY Project began in 1999, following the first civilian elections Nigeria had seen in sixteen years. The Project's purpose was "to strengthen the policy process in population, reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS as a basis for improved services[...]In 2002, the scope of the project was expanded from HIV/AIDS, population, and reproductive health to include child survival." This evaluation report, prepared by Ann R. Author: The POLICY Project Type: Research & Reports Date: Jun 1, 2005 Be the first to review this resource! Download (870.71 KB) -
Orientation to Theory of Change Organizational Research Services produced this document to introduce its clients to Theory of Change and the "Layer Cake" model. Author: Organizational Research Services Type: Tipsheets & Paper Tools Date: Jan 1, 2008 Be the first to review this resource! Download (110.1 KB) -
Out-of-School Time Program Research and Evaluation Database This is a rich source for promising practices and evaluation reports on a huge variety of out-of-school programs. Author: Harvard Family Research Project Type: Websites & Online Tools Date: Aug 1, 2007 Point K Pick Be the first to review this resource! Web Link