Assessing Outcomes and Evaluation Programs in Nonprofits

Sponsored by: Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations

Speaker(s): Professor Robert Fischer

Date & Time: Sep 14, 2011 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM (Eastern)

Location
Cleveland, OH
United States

     In today’s environment of program accountability, it is important to make sure that you have data on your services. But beyond accountability, data have an important role to play in program planning and improvement within organizations.  Within the domain of evaluation research, a key area of inquiry relates to the monitoring of program implementation and outcome.  Program funders, managers, staff and evaluators are all interested in understanding the extent to which programs are delivered as intended and whether the initial anticipated outcomes are being achieved.  These types of data are vital in helping assess program performance and informing program improvement initiatives over time.   The development of a data monitoring framework, however, requires input and buy-in from all levels within an organization, as well as the commitment of resources to sustain the collection and analysis of the process and outcome data.   

The movement toward outcomes measurement has spurred a major shift in the way nonprofit and governmental entities view themselves and the way they communicate their role to their funders, clients, and other stakeholders.  This session will review the shifting paradigm in human services as it relates to program evaluation and outcomes measurement. The session will offer logic model and program flow tactics as key tools to identify indicators of program process and initial outcomes.  The presentation will draw out practical and credible tactics for developing monitoring measures and approaches, using a varied set of real-world program examples.  The discussion will include a look at how findings from a monitoring system can be fed back into decisionmaking at the agency and program level.  This workshop seeks to complete the loop for embedding process and outcome monitoring into the day-to-day workings of programs and agencies.

Join us for this free online seminar.  

 

Contact: 
Rebecca Zirm

Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations

rebecca.zirm@case.edu

(216) 368-6025 (phone)

(216) 368-6624 (fax)