Hello! My name is Amanda Babine and I am the Director of Evaluate for Change, a program evaluation company that provides training exclusively to nonprofits dedicated to measuring their impact, and a researcher at Columbia University in the City of New York.
Rad Resources – Evaluate for Change’s Data-Driven Nonprofit Blog
The company started inviting both nonprofits and evaluators to share their personal stories of using data to improve programming in the social sector. We focus on the good, bad and ugly of using data. Our guests post blogs that are written as first hand accounts and lessons learned; whereas our staff find ways to connect the nonprofit sector to data-scientists and program evaluators who can help.
Favorite Post –As we get so many great perspectives from our bloggers, it’s hard to pick which post is my favorite. With that being said, I will share three that most people seemed to find extremely entertaining:
- Hottest Data Nerds – Working with something so serious all the time, data, we make sure we find time to have fun. And one of our most fun posts has been the Hottest Data Nerds. The title is exactly what you expect!
- Is Early Childhood Education Worth the Investment? What Does the Data Say? We happen to have a lot of members who are passionate about education. One of our frequent guest bloggers helped our nonprofits take a closer look at how to really look at complex issues with an eye for data.
- Shifting the Nonprofit Culture: Don’t Fear the Data – Our first guest blogger, which wasn’t that long ago, has been one of our most popular blogs so far. The topic brought more conversation than any of our other blogs.
Why We Blog – I use WE intentionally. Our blog wouldn’t be as popular and successful if it was not for our passionate community that submits amazing blog ideas and entries. And we continue our work because we want to give the community voice.
What We Have Learned – I have learned that graduate school ruined my creativity. I also learned that our biggest asset is our editor. I am sure whatever I produced before this would make you question my qualifications. On a more serious note, I learned to allow people to have a voice.
Hot Tip – Just because someone has not blogged before doesn’t mean they won’t produce amazing content. Contributors who have been hesitant to share since they don’t have a lot of experience submitted some of our most popular blogs! Not that getting “famous” guest bloggers is a bad thing, but we found that less known individuals can inspire us just as much, if not more.
This winter, we’re continuing our occasional series highlighting evaluators who blog. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.