Assigning importance to member evaluation
Abstract
Members gain a great deal when they are involved in evaluating their work and project achievements. This effective practice, from the October 1999 issue of Mosaica's newsletter, Training Briefs, will help you identify ways to make your program more successful through an evaluation process.Issue
Are our programs being run as designed? Are we completing the activities in our work plan? Are we operating within the budget? Is our work of high quality, as judged by specific short-term measures? Is our national service work making a difference in a specific issue in our community or should we change our way of addressing this issue?Action
Evaluation is the systematic review and assessment of the benefits, quality, and value of a program or activity. It can focus on program design, implementation, and/or results.
Evaluation helps you:
- Ensure that programs reflect community interests, needs and priorities
- Understand what service recipients think about your programs
- Discover what went wrong and fix it — and identify what went right and repeat it
- Provide better services
- Demonstrate to funders and other stakeholders what your program can achieve
Context
Evaluation approaches include:- Design evaluation: Assesses program design and helps you make choices among strategies
- Process evaluation: Assesses whether a program has been implemented as planned
- Outcomes evaluation: Determines project results or achievements
Citation
Mosaica. Training Briefs. Washington, D.C.: Corporation for National and Community Service, no. 15, (October 1999).
Training Briefs were produced by Mosaica under Cooperative Agreement #98CADC009 with the Corporation for National and Community Service during July of 1997 through October of 1999.
Mosaica: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism, provides organizational assessments, strategic and resource development planning, fundraising capacity building, restructuring support, and assistance in financial management and oversight. Other services include board development, program design and delivery, personnel and systems management, volunteer activities, community involvement and community building, community organizing and advocacy, program evaluation, and coalition building.
The goal of Mosaica is to bring together individuals with diverse voices and experience to create an organization with a set of common values. Mosaica was established out of a commitment to social justice and a belief that within the United States and throughout the world, societies that strive for democracy, human rights, peace, individual opportunity, and pluralism must be built and maintained from the bottom up—community by community, group by group—with the active involvement of nonprofit organizations and a strong independent sector. Mosaica helps strengthen nonprofits so they can provide high quality services and advocacy in a sustainable, well-run fashion that supports communities.
Outcome
Evaluation can provide insight into what works and what doesn't work and why, and help identify ways to make a program more successful.Posted On
August 30, 2001For More Information