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Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple: Get your Data. Show your Impact. Improve your Programs.
Are you overwhelmed on how to do nonprofit program evaluation?
You're not alone. Chari's here to help!
There are many ways to do program evaluation, making it difficult to know how to start. In this book, Chari outlines a clear approach, filled with real world stories as well as examples of evaluation plans, surveys, and reports.
Key topics
Understand how to build buy-in for evaluation and address staff resistance and make a realistic program evaluation planCreate measurable outcomes for both grant applications and to guide program improvementDevelop an impact and/or logic model that visually communicates what your program does and the difference it makesCreate useful surveys that measure what mattersUnderstand the choices in how to manage your data - spreadsheets v. database solutionsBasic data analysis and reporting to make meaning of your dataIncluded with the book is a link to a companion website filled with downloadable real world examples and templates.
About Chari Smith
Chari Smith believes evaluation should be accessible, practical and usable. She founded Evaluation into Action to help nonprofit professionals create realistic and meaningful program evaluation processes. She has taught several workshops helping nonprofit professionals understand the value and use of program evaluation. She is also a wife, mother, jazz pianist, singer/songwriter, and devoted yogi.
Here's What People Are Saying about Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple
The ability to measure impact and share that success with the world is foundational to a thriving nonprofit and unlocks doors leading to visibility and funding. Leaders mistakenly believe that the process is too expensive, too timing consuming or that their kind of work can't be measured. Chari's approach to program evaluation will bust these myths and unlock these doors - offering a simple and accessible approach to your efforts to invite more people to know more and do more for your cause. Joan Garry, Author of Nonprofits are Messy, Principal at Joan Garry Consulting, and Founder of Nonprofit Leadership Lab
Understanding your organization's impact requires using data to learn and improve on a regular basis and that can be a daunting task. In this book, Chari Smith has demystified the process of creating an effective evaluation process for nonprofits. The book offers many practical tips that will help your organization improve results. Beth Kanter, Virtual Facilitator, Trainer, and Author
Making the complex simple, the complicated doable, the abstract concrete, and the frightening friendly takes a special combination of expertise, experience, and communications skill. Chari Smith brings all that and more to this accessible, important, and insightful book. Read, learn, and engage. Michael Quinn Patton, Founder and CEO, Utilization-Focused Evaluation
This book provides an excellent blueprint for nonprofits to follow as Smith outlines all the necessary steps to get from the idea phase of evaluation to creating reports and communicating the data in a way that shows impact of your program(s) that stakeholders, community members and funders will all understand and appreciate.
You're not alone. Chari's here to help!
There are many ways to do program evaluation, making it difficult to know how to start. In this book, Chari outlines a clear approach, filled with real world stories as well as examples of evaluation plans, surveys, and reports.
Key topics
Understand how to build buy-in for evaluation and address staff resistance and make a realistic program evaluation planCreate measurable outcomes for both grant applications and to guide program improvementDevelop an impact and/or logic model that visually communicates what your program does and the difference it makesCreate useful surveys that measure what mattersUnderstand the choices in how to manage your data - spreadsheets v. database solutionsBasic data analysis and reporting to make meaning of your dataIncluded with the book is a link to a companion website filled with downloadable real world examples and templates.
About Chari Smith
Chari Smith believes evaluation should be accessible, practical and usable. She founded Evaluation into Action to help nonprofit professionals create realistic and meaningful program evaluation processes. She has taught several workshops helping nonprofit professionals understand the value and use of program evaluation. She is also a wife, mother, jazz pianist, singer/songwriter, and devoted yogi.
Here's What People Are Saying about Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple
The ability to measure impact and share that success with the world is foundational to a thriving nonprofit and unlocks doors leading to visibility and funding. Leaders mistakenly believe that the process is too expensive, too timing consuming or that their kind of work can't be measured. Chari's approach to program evaluation will bust these myths and unlock these doors - offering a simple and accessible approach to your efforts to invite more people to know more and do more for your cause. Joan Garry, Author of Nonprofits are Messy, Principal at Joan Garry Consulting, and Founder of Nonprofit Leadership Lab
Understanding your organization's impact requires using data to learn and improve on a regular basis and that can be a daunting task. In this book, Chari Smith has demystified the process of creating an effective evaluation process for nonprofits. The book offers many practical tips that will help your organization improve results. Beth Kanter, Virtual Facilitator, Trainer, and Author
Making the complex simple, the complicated doable, the abstract concrete, and the frightening friendly takes a special combination of expertise, experience, and communications skill. Chari Smith brings all that and more to this accessible, important, and insightful book. Read, learn, and engage. Michael Quinn Patton, Founder and CEO, Utilization-Focused Evaluation
This book provides an excellent blueprint for nonprofits to follow as Smith outlines all the necessary steps to get from the idea phase of evaluation to creating reports and communicating the data in a way that shows impact of your program(s) that stakeholders, community members and funders will all understand and appreciate.
248 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 17, 2020
11 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 12, 2025
An extremely valuable resource if you work in any kind of service-providing organization. I was introduced to evaluation through a certificate program on civic engagement, but I will be taking the lessons forward in many aspects of my project.
As much as this is 100% work-related, I really enjoyed it because it clearly shows how to combine quantitative and qualitative data to tell a compelling story, measure impact and express the value of your program. It even gets into some detail and survey design and reporting findings. Highly recommend this if you’re interested in how to measure impact.
As much as this is 100% work-related, I really enjoyed it because it clearly shows how to combine quantitative and qualitative data to tell a compelling story, measure impact and express the value of your program. It even gets into some detail and survey design and reporting findings. Highly recommend this if you’re interested in how to measure impact.
November 1, 2025
Simple foundational info.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews