Jan 02

Evaluations Could Become Your Best Program

© lpstudio - Fotolia.com

When organizations discuss evaluations, they often follow existing programs.  The goal is to learn about the program and what participants thought about it and longer term what the impact might have been.  These discussions often are focused on mass surveys (phone or internet) to get feedback. Surveys are by nature not very personal.  Participants are …

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Permanent link to this article: http://evaluatingeffectiveness.com/evaluations-could-become-your-best-program/

Dec 20

Set Target Benchmarks Before Evaluating

© Olivier Le Moal - Fotolia.com

One of the most frequent lost opportunities when conducting an evaluation is not setting detailed enough expectations and targets when you begin.  By setting quantitative goals ahead of time, all parties will enter the evaluation with the same outcome expectations and therefore when the results come in, there will not be disagreement with the findings.  …

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Permanent link to this article: http://evaluatingeffectiveness.com/set-target-benchmarks-before-evaluating/

Nov 13

Nate Silver Does it Again

Nate Silver's 2012 predictions on fivethirtyeight blog

The end has come.  No, not the end of the Incan calendar, nor armageddon, just the end of the election.  Evaluation and data has long been a campaigner’s tool.  Focus groups are used to test speeches and arguments.  Polls are conducted to track trends and predict outcomes.  But one thing bothered me this year: instead …

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Permanent link to this article: http://evaluatingeffectiveness.com/nate-silver-does-it-again/

Nov 08

Keep Evaluations Positive

One of the reasons I believe that evaluations are not more prominent in the non-profit world is that everyone brings hesitations and concerns about the impact that it may have.  In order for evaluation to be welcomed and most effective, it is important to put these fears to rest which requires recognizing the “threat” potentially …

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Permanent link to this article: http://evaluatingeffectiveness.com/keep-evaluations-positive/

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