Level Best: How Small and Grassroots Nonprofits Can Tackle Evaluation and Talk Results

Introduction.

How to Use This Book.

Instruction with Samples and Examples.

1 Understanding Evaluation.

Evaluation as Power Instead of Pain.

What Evaluation Is and What It Is Not.

2 A Simple Evaluation Framework.

The Basic Evaluation Framework.

Key Concepts:What to Evaluate and How to Get Started.

The Rolling Evaluation Method.

3 Planning Your Evaluation.

A Quick Review of Basic Organizational Readiness.

Definition of an Effective Organization.

What You Plan Affects What You Learn.

Step by Step: Planning Your Evaluation.

Understanding Funders’Needs and Fitting Them into Your Evaluation Plan.

Why Setting Goals Makes Evaluation Easier.

How You Can Prepare.

4 Asking the Right Questions.

Clear Program Goals Guide Evaluation Questions and Choices.

What to Evaluate:What You Do Versus What Your Constituents Do.

If or Then:Which to Evaluate?

The Relationship Between Evaluating What You Do (Process) and What They Do (Outcome).

Determine the Right Questions.

Ask What You Really Want to Know.

How Advocacy Organizations Can Approach Evaluation.

How to Be Answerable When Advocacy and Organizing Are Your Agenda.

Ideas for Measuring Organizing Efforts.

5 Tracking Information.

Options for Tracking Information.

The Right Goal Statement Helps Determine the Right Things to Track.

6 Learning From and Using the Information.

Making Use of Your Information.

Organizing Your Information.

Drawing Conclusions.

Using What You Learn.

Sharing Your Evaluation Results with the Outside World.

Feeding Results into the Cycle of Planning.

Tying Evaluation into Planning.

Deciding Where to Begin.

Incorporating Evaluation into Your Strategic Planning Process.

Resources.

A Commonly Used Terms and Their Definitions.

B Types of Evaluation.

C Sample Completed Evaluation Planning Worksheet.

D Sample Evaluation Report Outline.

E Program Evaluation Standards.

Acknowledgments.

About the Authors.

References.

Index.