Developing Evaluative Capacity
Evaluative Capacity is the combination of evaluation skills and evaluative thinking. It requires a commitment to doing and using evaluation in programs, strategies, and initiatives as well as a commitment to using those same skills in other aspects of organization work. Organizations with high evaluative capacity:
- Use the five evaluation skills in programmatic AND organizational work
- Frame questions which need to be asked and can be answered with data
- Have staff who have/enhance their evaluation skills and use them to collect and analyze data
- Have a clear plan of what to do with the data they collect and the results of their analyses
- Act in a timely way AND actually use data for making decisions
Featured Resources
- Evaluation Capacity Building and Organizational Change 2013
- Organizational Benefits and Challenges of Investing in Evaluative Capacity 2014
- Understanding Evaluation Capacity Building Training Results: Findings from the 2013 Former Participant Survey
- Evaluation Capacity and Organizational Change: Voices from the Field 2014
- Evaluation Capacity Building Project Clearinghouse 2013
This interactive site contains detailed information about the Foundation’s 15-year commitment to supporting evaluation and evaluative thinking. The Clearinghouse is intended to be a resource for nonprofit and funding organizations exploring ways to build evaluative capacity - the integrating of evaluation skills and evaluative thinking into everyday organizational practice to ensure not only stronger programs but also stronger, more effective organizations. - Applying Evaluative Thinking to Data Collection Bulletins 2013
This series of four bulletins were developed in response to the continuing need expressed by nonprofit partners to clarify how to put enhanced evaluation capacity to work specifically in the area of data collection. Topics for the bulletins include: Surveys, Interviews, Observation, and Record Review. These bulletins are intended to do the following: provide additional details about specific data collection strategies; provide direction regarding effective use of data collection strategies so that findings can inform data-driven decision making; help organizations think about creative ways to present and use evaluation findings. - Integrating Evaluative Capacity into Organizational Practice 2012
This manual offers concrete ways to integrate evaluation skills and evaluative thinking, beyond the program level, into everyday organizational practice, helping to ensure stronger programs and to support more effective organizations that are better able to deliver on their missions. The new guide also includes a review of Evaluation Essentials and Appendices for how to use an evaluative thinking assessment tool and how to commission evaluation.
Hebrew version also available.
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