Evaluation in Small Development Non-Profits: Deadends, Victories, and Alternative Routes

by Leanne M. Kelly

Research on evaluation shows that low-use and non-use of evaluation is common, yet evaluation is hailed as beneficial and worthwhile. The worth of evaluation is tied to its utilisation, presenting a paradox if evaluation is both revered and underutilised. This book investigates this paradox in the under-researched context of small development non-profit organisations, which have specific resource constraints and ‘bottom up’ community development values that complicate their ability to do and use evaluation in line with top down directives. The book examines the utility, meaningfulness, and purpose of evaluation from small non-profit perspectives, and explores whether evaluation has value for these organisations. For development practice, it presents evaluative alternatives that reconceptualise evaluation as part of the active process of development rather than as an interval-based add-on. For evaluation theory, it highlights a historical preoccupation with improving evaluation without assessing its inherent worth, and considers alternative ways to enhance the value of evaluation for small non-profits.

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 30, 2020

About the author

Leanne Kelly has spent nearly 20 years working in community development and social service non-profit organisations across five continents. She has worked for non-profit organisations in a broad range
of disciplines (from housing and emergency services to child protection
and peacebuilding) with the majority of her roles focused on evaluation. Leanne has also worked as an external evaluator for non-profit
organisations, most recently in Myanmar. She has a PhD from Deakin
University on evaluation in small international and community development non-profits and has published 40 scholarly papers and two
books: Evaluation in Small Development Non-Profits and Internal
Evaluation in Non-Profit Organisations (co-authored with Dr Alison
Rogers) She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Deakin
University and is the National Evaluation Advisor at the Australian
Red Cross.