by Louisa Hackett - Recently, a few community-based organizations, evaluators and funders gathered at the City University of New York Graduate Center to discuss, as one participant described it, the accountability regime eating us. Read more >>
News & Views
A blog for those interested in what affects, motivates and drives the New York City Nonprofit Sector — written by CRE’s crackerjack consulting team. We hope you use this space to share your thoughts, ask questions and engage in conversations about our city, social justice and the nonprofit sector.
Is Evaluation an Infection?
1
Find us on:
Tags
lower Manhattan case statement cre publications computers Randall Quan Governance as Leadership CRE Executive Search Advocacy New York Community Trust Mohan Sikka Data Starved President Obama arts strategic alliances tips government HIV/AIDS services providers leadership mergers Harvard Kennedy School grantmakers What is Core? Useful Links IT Funding Updates Barbara Blumenthal Stanford Social Innovation Review Daring to Lead Ximena Rua-Merkin executive Pavitra Menon grantmakers for effective organizations foundations Holly Delany Cole Peter Block harvard business school New York proposal writing Data MAC AIDS Fund executive transition Michael Hickey nonprofit accountability capacity building Jean Lobell National and Community Service community Mark Light collaborations website, resources, announcements Client News Beth Kobliner hard times Alliance for Nonprofit Management I.T. without I.T. bookkeeping media announcment fundraising rockaways NYCCCOC Needs Assessment Valyrie Laedlein Nonprofit News Coaching board leadership Nonprofit Neighborhood Based Capacity Building Initiative accountability internal controls record keeping CRE News House Party CRE Tips Fran's Corner New York City Government New York Times jobs 30th Anniversary generative National Committee of Responsive Philanthropy Nonprofit Quarterly staff RFP CRE POV queens handling the unexpected Albany board and staff relations Bill Ryan Ero Gray Fran Barrett nonprofit mergers Featured Items guest blogger Louisa Hackett nonprofit start-ups Nonprofit Tools nonprofit management Huffington Post Sector Research Nonprofit Sustainability nonprofit leaders Government News postponed event nonprofit ownership Board of Directors evaluation Philanthropic Collaborative
Subscribe via RSS feed
Comments
Allison
For the past few years, I've been trying to get nonprofits and funders to understand the difference between the terms accountability and evaluation. Accountability is basically the process of determinig if a nonprofit is behaving properly - are they spending money responsibly, are they providing the services they proposed, and are they serving the individuals they are supposed to.
Evaluation is really the process of determining what outcomes resulted from a program, sevice, and project, as well as determining what components lead to these outcomes. In it's most useful sense, this evaluation data would then be used to inform the next evolution of the program, sevice, or project.
Unfortunately, both funders and nonprofits have been stuck in thinking of only accountability. Blame falls on both sides.
Funders assume most nonprofits aren't sophisticated to do evaluation, and the funders rarely provide the additional funds necessary to do evaluation. Therefore, only accountability measures are requested as part of a reporting process.
Nonprofits also fail to stand up to funders and request additional funds for evaluation. Nonprofits too often fall into thinking that they can't question the funder, which leads to just doing the bare minimum that the funder wants, even if that limits the amount of knowledge the nonprofit could generate from doing evaluation (and not just accountability).
As for your idea that nonprofits need to redefine programs, Here Here!! See similar musing "Hope, dignity and quality of life are also valuable outcomes, even when measured in hours." at http://bit.ly/8iYuEk Gayle