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    Successful Program Evaluation
    Successful Program Evaluation
    Successful Program Evaluation
    Ebook196 pages3 hours

    Successful Program Evaluation

    By Michael Wells

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    About this ebook

    Successful Program Evaluation demystifies the subject and gives the reader tools to develop stronger programs and grant proposals. It doesn't tell how to conduct a full-scale evaluation (most professional evaluators are PhD's), but how to talk to an evaluator, how to to decide if you need one, and if not how to create simple systems to measure project success on your own.

    This book is for grantwriters, nonprofit managers, board members and anyone else interested in providing quality services, increasing chances of grant success and strengthening their organization. Evaluating your programs is the key success, in grantwriting and in program delivery. Analyzing program outcomes can help you find areas that need extra attention and implement cost efficiencies or improve service delivery.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMichael Wells
    Release dateFeb 27, 2013
    ISBN9781301092567
    Successful Program Evaluation
    Author

    Michael Wells

    Michael Wells is an award-winning newspaper journalist and photographer living in the Pacific Northwest. He is from Kentucky, near Kentucky Lake. He is a graduate of Murray State University. Now a resident of the Pacific Northwest he likes to explore the vast wilderness and untamed rivers of the region with his camera.

    Read more from Michael Wells

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      Book preview

      Successful Program Evaluation - Michael Wells

      Successful Program Evaluation

      Grantwriting Beyond the Basics, Book 3

      By: Michael K. Wells

      Originally published in paper by the now defunct Portland State University Continuing Education Press

      Copyright 2007 & 2012 Michael K. Wells

      All Rights Reserved

      Grants Northwest, 1020 SW Taylor, Suite 545, Portland, Oregon 97205

      www.grantsnorthwest.com

      ISBN:

      Smashwords Edition 2013

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Other books in the Grantwriting Beyond the Basics series;

      Book 1. Proven Strategies Professionals Use to Make Their Proposals Work

      Book 2. Understanding Nonprofit Finances

      Acknowledgements:

      Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) for use of their Due Diligence Tool.

      The Evaluation Forum at Organizational Research Services, Inc. for use of their logic model examples.

      Dedication

      Dedicated to my daughters Maya, Melissa and Julie.

      You're made me so proud and my life so rich.

      Foreword

      When I started writing grants 30 years ago, funders didn’t routinely ask for proof that we were making a difference. Grantseekers were able to say, Give us the money and we’ll do this cool thing, and that was that.

      Those days are gone.

      Today, there is tremendous pressure, not only to articulate clearly the problem we’re addressing and to quantify what we’re going to do about it, but to then to measure whether we affected any change. The pressure is coming from sources both inside and outside our organizations.

      Fortunately, Michael’s insightful book will help ease that pressure.

      As you have probably experienced, grantwriters are often drivers of change in organizations, and nowhere is that more obvious than in program evaluation. If grantors didn’t ask us to justify their support, many of our organizations wouldn’t hold themselves accountable. So grantwriters, those of us with the most visceral relationship with grantors, are the ones asking the hard questions inside our organizations and, indeed, changing behavior.

      At least as problematic as the requests from funders is the resistance we often encounter from our own staff, who often view evaluation as a test that they might not pass. They’ll suggest the clients are too vulnerable to be asked how they’re faring, or they’ll say it’s impossible to prove whether prevention worked, or they’ll object that no one can quantify the impact of art. Often, those who raise money are considered the dark side of the organization, and we’re told that client information is too confidential to be shared with us.

      This book offers responses for each protest, and helps us show our colleagues why evaluation is in our own best interest, strengthening our programs, our organizations, and the outcomes of those we serve.

      Once we start to evaluate our work, we discover it’s hard to know just how to characterize effectiveness. For example, a woman had been working with a group of Native American fathers on early childhood parenting. On the last night of class she told them she was worried about how to measure the effectiveness of the program for the funder. From the back row came the quiet voice of a shy young man: With all due respect, ma’am, you could ask us.

      On the other hand, sometimes the outcomes are complex. An evaluator once asked a troubled and divided family how their counseling process had gone. We hate that therapist, came their unified response. She’s no good, and we all agree that being with her was a waste of time! So when the evaluator approached the therapist for her point of view, he was surprised to hear her say, This process was a complete success! A probing question revealed her rationale. My goal with this family was to get a disparate, disconnected group of individuals to come together to fight a common enemy.

      It’s easy to get intimidated or overwhelmed when the situation requires scientific or statistical evaluation. We are, after all, usually writers and not scientists or statisticians. Our fears are quelled, however, by Michael’s patient passages that make a daunting topic manageable. All three of Michael’s books in the Grantwriting Beyond the Basics series have done the same thing—taken a subject a bit beyond our reach and brought it within our grasp, making us more competent and confident, and more able representatives of the important work of our sector. The best part is that he guides us through the hard parts with the familiar kindness of a wise old friend.

      He brings just the right combination of experience and skill to the task. He’s worked in nonprofits as staff, board, volunteer, and consultant, so he knows firsthand the quirks, fears and reservations people have about being judged. Stints in the business world have given him a results-oriented perspective. Over 20 years writing grants have taken him through the journey of learning his subjects from the inside out. The Grantwriting Beyond the Basics series takes this accumulated knowledge and lays it out for the reader.

      As grantmakers grow more sophisticated and demanding about evaluation, it is incumbent upon us to help our organizations respond with skill and grace. The journey to effective evaluation may be arduous, but now we have a roadmap.

      —Susan Howlett

      Susan Howlett is Seattle-based grantwriter, consultant and trainer. She is co-author of GETTING FUNDED: The Complete Guide to Writing Grant Proposals. Information about Susan can be found at http://www.susanhowlett.com/.

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Foreword

      Introduction

      SECTION 1:

      UNDERSTANDING EVALUATION

      Chapter 1: Before You Start

      Why Do Evaluation?

      Resistance to Evaluation

      Do You Need a Formal Evaluation?

      Performance Monitoring

      Piggyback Evaluation Reports

      Program Staff Evaluation Reports

      Board of Directors Evaluation Reports

      Reporting on Internal Evaluation

      Organizational Commitment

      Chapter 2: About Program Evaluation

      Basics of Evaluation

      Choosing the Appropriate Evaluation

      Roots of Program Evaluation

      Conducting Quantitative Evaluation

      Conducting Qualitative Evaluation

      Evaluation Instruments

      Research Design Symbols

      Evaluation of Economic Costs

      Chapter 3: Evaluation Considerations

      Evaluability

      Reliability and Validity

      Confidentiality, Anonymity, and Privacy

      Human Subjects Issues

      Cultural Competence

      Chapter 4: Statistics And Data Analysis

      Levels of Measurement

      Descriptive Statistics

      Inferential Statistics

      Chapter 5: Analyzing Qualitative Data

      Thematic Content Analysis

      Constant-Comparative Method

      Grounded Theory

      Enumerating and Diagramming

      SECTION 2:

      EVALUATION IN GRANT PROPOSALS

      Chapter 6: What Funders Want

      Foundations

      GEO Due Diligence Tool

      Government Agencies

      Chapter 7: Coordinating Grants And Evaluation Planning

      Read the Guidelines

      Compose the Organizational Description

      Research the Needs Statement

      Define the Goals and Objectives

      Using Logic Models

      Narrative and Procedures

      Timelines

      Evaluation

      Sustainability

      Personnel

      Replication and Dissemination

      Chapter 8: Logic Models And Theory Of Change

      Sample Logic Model

      Developing a Logic Model and Program Theory

      Goals and Objectives vs. Outputs and Outcomes

      Program Logic Models for Grants

      Chapter 9: Developing An Evaluation Plan

      Chapter 10: Writing Your Evaluation Section

      Chapter 11: Research-Based Concepts In Evaluation

      Evidence-Based Practices

      Best Practices

      Benchmarks and Baselines

      Chapter 12: Using An Outside Evaluator

      Why Use an Outside Evaluator?

      How to Find an Outside Evaluator

      Choosing an Evaluator

      Working with an Evaluator

      Chapter 13: Examples Of Evaluation Sections

      1. Fairview Terrace: From a Small Grant Proposal by Letter to a Family Foundation

      2. Florentine Chamber Orchestra: From a Proposal to a General Purpose Foundation

      3. Fairview Terrace: From a Capital Proposal to a General Purpose Foundation

      4. Jefferson County Community Action: From a Grant Proposal to a State Department of Education for the 21st Century Community Learning Center

      5. Jefferson County Community Action: From a Demonstration Grant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for School-Based Violence Prevention

      SECTION 3: EVALUATION RESOURCES

      Chapter 14: General Information

      Internet Resources

      Libraries

      Bookstores

      Chapter 15: Evaluation Instruments

      Glossary

      Annotated Bibliography

      Index

      ***

      Introduction

      For many grantwriters, evaluation competes with finances as the least favorite part of developing proposals. It seems terribly complex, it can feel like it’s forced on you by funders, and you may experience resistance from the program people whose cooperation you need to develop a good proposal. The evaluation section is treated as a necessary evil and an afterthought—something you throw together after the real work of your proposal is done—so it is often one of the weakest parts of many grants. In a competitive funding round, a strong evaluation section may make the difference between getting funded or turned down.

      Yet if you embrace evaluation and incorporate it into your grant development process, it will strengthen your whole proposal. You’ll develop more compelling needs statements, create stronger goals and objectives, and write a better narratives. Your proposals will be more fundable, and once funded, the grant programs will be more successful.

      In fact, your whole organization will benefit, because evaluation is becoming more important not just in grant proposals but in all aspects of operation. The organizations that survive and thrive will be the ones that understand, measure, and work to improve themselves and their programs. And the way that’s done is through program evaluation.

      Successful Program Evaluation is intended to demystify evaluation and give you the tools to develop stronger grant evaluation sections. It will not tell you how to do a full-scale evaluation with statistical outcomes, which I believe requires more training than one book can promise (most professional evaluators are Ph.D.’s). As with financial statements, you don’t need to be able to producefull-scale evaluations, you just only have understand evaluation enough to decide whether and how to approach it, and to be able to describe it.

      Evaluation as a field is in flux and can be frustrating. There are different definitions for the same words and different words for the same

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