Nonprofits and Foundations Evaluation

Greetings! I’m Edward Jackson, a consultant and professor, and this blog is focused on the role of the evaluators in actually building emerging fields of practice, not only assessing them. These observations grow out of my experience, along with that of other colleagues, in engaging with the impact investing industry over the past five years. …

NPF TIG Week: Edward Jackson on The Evaluator as Field-Builder: Experience with Impact Investing Read More »

Greetings from Hanh Cao Yu of Social Policy Research Associates. Building on 20 years of experience working with foundations, my organization served as the evaluator on a number of multi-year foundation-initiated efforts to tackle tough social issues through transforming entire fields and movements. The SPR team has just completed a 5-year evaluation of an initiative …

NPF TIG Week: Hanh Cao Yu on Learning and Adaptability in Field-Building Read More »

I’m Jewlya Lynn, founder/CEO of Spark Policy Institute. One of the best parts of my job is helping organizations use learning to do good, even better. Recently, we worked with Project Health Colorado, a strategy funded by The Colorado Trust with support from The Colorado Health Foundation, focused on building public will to achieve access …

NPF TIG Week: Jewlya Lynn on Using Learning To Do Good, Even Better Read More »

Hello Evaluation Colleagues! I am Laura Beals, Director of Evaluation at Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JF&CS) in Boston. Kathryn Hill and I are the business co-chairs of the Nonprofit and Foundations Nonprofit TIG (NPFTIG). We are excited to be kicking off the NPFTIG week on AEA365—our theme this year matches that of the conference: …

NPF TIG Week: Laura Beals on the Importance of High Quality Data Read More »

Hello, everyone!  I’m Claire Sterling, Program Co-Chair of the AEA Nonprofit & Foundations TIG and Director, Grant Strategies at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the oldest American animal welfare organization.  For nearly 150 years, the ASPCA has been saving and improving the lives of companion animals through a wide …

NPF TIG Week: Claire Sterling on Packing Up This Week’s Lessons…and Bringing Them to Evaluation 2014! Read More »

Hello from Patrick Germain! I am an internal evaluator, professor, blog writer, and the President of New York Consortium of Evaluators.  Working as a nonprofit internal evaluator teaches you a few things about evaluating with very few resources. Even as our sector gets better at using validated evidence for accountability and learning, the resources to …

NPF TIG Week: Patrick Germain on Powerful Evaluation on Limited Resources Read More »

My name is Trina Willard and I am the Principal of Knowledge Advisory Group, a small consulting firm that provides research and evaluation services to nonprofits, government agencies and small businesses. I’ve worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations over the years, many of which have limited staff and financial resources. Such organizations sometimes have …

NPF TIG Week: Trina Willard on Moving from Measurement Strategy to Implementation in Small Nonprofits Read More »

Hi, I’m Kamilah Henderson, Evaluation Fellow at Skillman Foundation in Detroit. I work with Foundation staff and partners to create learning opportunities that inform the work of improving conditions for Detroit kids. Skillman provided a social innovation grant to the Detroit Bus Company to develop the Youth Transit Alliance (YTA), creating a long-term transportation solution …

NPF TIG Week: Kamilah Henderson on Working with Nonprofits to Maximize Evaluation Capacity Read More »

I am Patti Patrizi an evaluation consultant working primarily with foundations helping them develop evaluation and learning systems. After working at The Pew Charitable Trusts, I founded The Evaluation Roundtable. My tip is an approach I used to help a large foundation develop a learning system that fosters internal learning about their strategies as an …

NPF TIG Week: Patti Patrizi on Using Existing Data in New Ways Read More »