Program Evaluation for Nonprofit Organizations - Maryland State Library Resource Center

Program Evaluation for Nonprofit Organizations

What is program evaluation?

According to SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, a program evaluation is “the systematic process of studying a program to discover how well it is working to achieve intended goals.” PE_wordcloud

There are several reasons to evaluate a program:

Measureable results are important to grantmakers, which may include filing an annual report and interim reports.
Grantmakers require an evaluation method in your grant proposal.
Grantmakers want to see a proven track record of success.
Effective program evaluation is a formative and summative tool that will help manage your organization..
To help you realize when to change tactics, expand, or cut your losses.

See the American Psychological Association’s “Why Evaluate?”

Goal Setting

Set goals for your program. It will make it easier for you to evaluate the level of your success if you know what success looks like.

There are many different ways to set goals, with no single method being the absolute best. Be careful not to set your goals too broadly or too unrealistically. Imagining your organization as being the largest food distributor for the needy on the planet is not a goal; it is a vision. When setting a goal, many organizations find the “SMART” method effective. According to the University of Virginia, a SMART goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound.

Evaluation Process

What are you evaluating? You should be able to answer this question in one sentence. Keep your goal specific. Here are several examples:

a free afterschool tutoring program for high risk students
a life skills program for the unemployed
a health awareness campaign

How will you determine the success of the program? Again, aim for a 1 sentence answer.

if student absenteeism in Baltimore City Public Schools decreases with better access to transportation
if school performance in Maryland increases because high risk students receive free after school tutoring
if program participants find jobs after joining a life skills program
if medical emergencies in a community go down after a health awareness campaign

How do you measure success? Assign hard numbers, or quantitative values, to your evaluation. Remember, aim for an accurate representation of what you hope to accomplish. Look at what similar programs have achieved and adjust accordingly. For example,

1-point increase in students’ GPA after beginning tutoring
75% of program participants finding employment within 6 months
25% fewer ER visits within a year after the health awareness campaign

How will you gather data?

before and after surveys
data from government organizations and other groups
attendance headcounts and sign in sheets
interviews and focus groups
document reviews and sorting

In addition, always cover the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of your program. Ideally, this should be done during the planning stage of your program, but it is never too late to take care of this: For example:

Who are you helping?
What are you doing?
When will the program begin and end?
Where are you working? (geographic location)
Why are you running this program? Does the need exist?
How are you going to do this?

For more tools, see:

Community Tool Box’s Framework for Program Evaluation
University of North Carolina Greensboro's Program Evaluation Resource Center

Types of Results

Quantitative results always include numbers. For example, 10 people attended your event, or there has been a 2% decrease in homelessness in the last 5 years, etc. This kind of data is the most direct and empirical way to determine success or failure.

Qualitative results don’t involve numbers. Instead, they are made up of data from interviews and surveys. This kind of data can effectively register change, as well. . Qualitative data is harder to collect, but it is nonetheless helpful for programs that want to measure intangible and subjective issues such as “increase self-esteem,” or “teach life skills.” This type of data is valuable because it measures that which quantitative analysis often misses, i.e. the human aspect of your organization. For instance,. “Sally felt so confident after the life skills program that she raised her hand in class for the first time ever.” This completes the whole picture, both qualitative and quantitative, and presents a more human representation of your organization.

Research Methods Knowledge Base's Qualitative Data

Australian Bureau of Statistics' Quantitative and Qualitative Data