Synopses & Reviews
Explore the relationships between nonprofits, funders, and evaluation and how recent trends and developments in the philanthropic and government sectors have raised expectations for these groups. With contributions by those leading the charge to improve nonprofit evaluation, this volume demonstrates how nonprofits can succeed by being resourceful, investing in their organizational capacity to do evaluation, and creating an environment that supports and facilitates organizational learning.
In recent years, many have observed that nonprofit organizations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their effectiveness and document their program outcomes, as the current political and funding environment continues to stress the importance of accountability and measuring performance. Foundations, government agencies, and other funders are asking nonprofit organizations for more evaluation and performance measurement data. Yet, most nonprofit organizations continue to struggle with these demands, and many lack the capacity to implement evaluation and performance measurement in comprehensive or meaningful ways.
OL {list-style: disc} P: {margin-left 60px} This volume explores: the current state of evaluation practice within nonprofit organizations recent trends and developments in the philanthropic and government sectors premiere institutions leading the charge to improve evaluation practice within nonprofit organizations how nonprofit organizations can invest in their organizational capacity to do successful and effective evaluations.
This is the 119th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the AmericanEvaluation Association.
Synopsis
This issue of
New Directions for Evaluation focuses on evaluation in complex organizations. The themes that are examined?the mainstreaming of evaluation within organizations, the growth of evaluation capacity, and the use of evaluation to promote organizational learning?are relevant for evaluators who operate in environments marked by multiple organizational levels, varied funding streams, divergent purposes for evaluative information, and numerous stakeholders and organizational partners.
The national Cooperative Extension System serves as a recurring case study that links the topics together. Cooperative Extension is a system of institutions that includes every state's land-grant universities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local country governments. The linkages across professional communities and distinct institutions create a highly complex environment, presenting numerous challenges for evaluators working with community-based programs. Extension's experiences contribute to a rapidly evolving knowledge base about effective evaluation practice across a variety of organizational settings.
This is the 120th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly thematic journal New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association. The journal publishes empirical, methodological, and theoretical works on all aspects of evaluation. Each issue is devoted to a single topic, with contributions solicited, organized, reviewed, and edited by a guest editor or editors. Issues may take any of several forms, such as a series of related chapters, a debate, or a long article followed by brief critical commentaries.