Here's how funders are leveraging evaluation to improve nonprofit
effectiveness
Traditionally, funders expect evaluation to show that resources are
being used wisely. But evaluation can be a much more powerful tool--for
both funders and nonprofits. Forward-looking grantmakers and grantees
are leveraging their evaluations, ensuring that the time and money spent
ultimately improves effectiveness for everyone. This book shows how
they're doing it.
A Funder's Guide to Evaluation: Leveraging Evaluation to Improve
Nonprofit Effectiveness will help funders use evaluation to build the
capacity of grantees. Inside, you'll learn
- How the "evaluative learning" approach furthers ongoing improvement
via collaborative, stakeholder influenced evaluations
- How to bridge the differences in what funders and nonprofits need from
evaluation
- How evaluation builds four critical capacities--leadership, adaptive
capacity, management, and technical capacity
- Seven steps a funder can take to build the evaluative learning
capacity in nonprofits
- Thirteen specific evaluative learning strategies that funders can
support
Worksheets and assessment tools will help funders 1) assess their
readiness to implement evaluative learning; 2) develop a logic model; 3)
uncover grantees' current evaluation efforts and preparedness for
evaluative learning; and 4) use resources wisely when selecting an
evaluative learning support strategy. When the funding community
supports evaluative learning, nonprofits and funders together can figure
out how to strengthen programs, better allocate resources, and share
successful models.