Posts

How funders can help build evaluation capacity in a non-profit

Castillo, I. (2017, September 19). Building evaluation capacity within a nonprofit – How funders can help (and not cause Trouble). Venture Philanthropy Partners. http://www.vppartners.org/blog-post/building-evaluation-capacity-within-a-nonprofit-how-funders-can-help-and-not-cause-trouble/ Summarized by Ariel Ervin Notes of Interest:  Metrics are a valuable asset for funders and non-profits. By having numbers to back up findings, they are able to demonstrate the impact their […]

Program evaluation is critical to determine whether children’s needs are adequately addressed

Axford, A., Bjornstad, G., Matthews, J., Whybra, L., Berry, V., Ukoumunne, O. C., Hobbs, T., Wrigley, Z., Brook, L., … & Warner, G. (2020). The effectiveness of a community-based mentoring program for children aged 5–11 years: Results from a randomized controlled trial. Prevention Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01132-4 Summarized by Monica Arkin Notes of Interest: This randomized controlled […]

How a large program in India thinks about mentee risk

Written by Justin Preston   An organization providing one-to-one mentoring support to over 1,300 at-risk and underserved Indian youth and young adults, Mentor Together has years of experience working in five cities across India and online. Their efforts are aimed at providing empowering relationships to help adolescents and young adults achieve their goals and aspirations. […]

POLL: Does your program have a fully-developed theory of change?

Recently I’ve been thinking about a “disconnect” that I often see in the mentoring field: the difference between what programs say they can achieve through mentoring and what they actually do in practice. Now, most mentoring programs can obviously give a reasonable description of the goals of their program and some explanation of what mentors […]

Webinar on evaluating youth outcomes

Did it Work? Evaluating Youth Outcomes in Relationship-Based Programs Thursday, December 19, 2013 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM EDT As the year comes to a close, many programs are conducting mid-year or year-end evaluations. Analyzing this data, interpreting it accurately, and turning it into practical program improvements can be challenging and often overwhelming. If you’re […]

FORUM: What should mentoring programs keep in mind as they think about evaluation?

As a training and technical assistance provider who has worked with many diverse mentoring programs and initiatives over the years, I can honestly say that I’ve not seen a topic generate as much consternation, confusion, and near panic as program evaluation. As with many types of nonprofit and human services, mentoring programs are increasingly caught […]