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OL-ECB TIG Week: Build Community to Build Capacity by Jan Fields

Hi! I’m Jan Fields, program evaluator for the Michigan Overdose Data to Action (MODA) Program in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). My work focuses on evaluating prevention and harm reduction activities funded by the CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement. In addition to evaluating MODA activities, I am also the coordinator of a peer-to-peer (P2P) learning group consisting of OD2A-funded evaluators located in 66 jurisdictions throughout the country.

OL-ECB TIG Week: Meeting To Meet: Why We’re Terrible at Learning in Meetings by Elizabeth McGee

My name is Elizabeth McGee (she/her), founder of LEAP Consulting, and the soon-to-be Center for Radical Evaluation and Applied Research. Meetings. There are too many. They’re too long. They’re not productive. We don’t learn. And yet despite all of this, we don’t give them much attention even though they fill hours of our day. We …

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OL-ECB TIG Week: Putting Capacity Back in Capacity-Building by Gretchen Biesecker

Hi, I am Gretchen Biesecker, Principal Consultant with Bee’s Knees Consulting LLC in Somerville, MA. A large part of my practice focuses on evaluation capacity-building with nonprofits small and large, including AmeriCorps programs across the U.S. AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is a federal agency that “brings people together to tackle the country’s most pressing challenges through national service and volunteering.” Through a national network, AmeriCorps enrolls 200,000 Americans each year to meet critical needs in education, the environment, disaster services, public health, among others.

OL-ECB TIG Week: Zoom Out Before Zooming In: Building Evaluation Capacity In a School District Using Implementation Science by Nora Phelan and Lily Corrigan

Hi! We are Nora Phelan and Lily Corrigan, researchers in the Evaluation & School Improvement Services division at Measurement Incorporated (MI). We partner with non-profit organizations, school districts, and government entities, supporting them to evaluate various programs and interventions, generally in educational settings. Today we are sharing some hot tips and lessons learned from our recent efforts to build evaluation capacity in a large school district using the principles of implementation science.

OL-ECB TIG Week: Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building for Philanthropic Organizations and Their Grantees While Flipping the Orthodoxies around Evaluation That Are Incongruent With Equity Work by Ava Yang-Lewis and Mark Lewis

Greetings! We’re Ava Yang-Lewis and Mark Lewis, Co-founders of ACT Research. In our work, we know that equitable evaluation processes and effective use of evaluation is as much about individual mindset and organizational culture (those tightly held beliefs about evaluation practice) as it is about actual evaluation approaches, methods, and tools. Over the last eight years, much of our work has been about learning and evaluation capacity building (L+ECB) with foundations and their grantees while flipping orthodoxies in foundation and nonprofit culture around evaluation that are incongruent with equity work.

Nonprofits and Foundations Evaluation TIG Week: Using Metaphors to Communicate Impact in the Social Sector by Valerie A. Futch Ehrlich

Hello! I am Valerie Ehrlich, Director of Societal Impact’s evaluation team at the Center for Creative Leadership. We work to demonstrate impact and learn about leadership through social sector leadership development program evaluation. Metaphors are a functional part of language that help us “carry meaning across from one thing to another.” This can be especially …

Nonprofits and Foundations Evaluation TIG Week: Using Metaphors to Communicate Impact in the Social Sector by Valerie A. Futch Ehrlich Read More »

Nonprofits and Foundations Evaluation TIG Week: Using Storytelling to Get Nonprofits Excited About Evaluation by Ann Price

Hi everyone, I am Ann Price. President and Founder of Community Evaluation Solutions. I partner with community coalitions and nonprofit organizations to design and evaluate effective change strategies to create thriving and equitable communities. As evaluators, we have our process and that probably looks similar no matter what sector you work in. The process often …

Nonprofits and Foundations Evaluation TIG Week: Using Storytelling to Get Nonprofits Excited About Evaluation by Ann Price Read More »

Nonprofits and Foundations Evaluation TIG Week: Storytelling from the Staff Perspective by Allison Prieur

You’ve probably been there – at a fundraising event, and someone who has accessed the service gets up to the mic to tell their story. Sometimes it’s okay, but from my experience it can turn cringey quickly when people start sharing intimate details about times when they were at their most vulnerable. I’m Allison Prieur …

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