Evaluation Series: Get Creative, Have Fun, and Learn Something New: Evaluate Your Programs in Innovative Ways

Date: Apr 4, 2012
Time: 09:00 AM to 10:30 AM

Where:

Wilder Center 451 Lexington Parkway North, St. Paul

Fee: $45 for MCN members / $65 for nonmembers

Register Now!

Whether you are stuck in the rut of doing a survey at every milestone, or have never evaluated your program before, there is no reason not to have fun in the process. In this workshop, you will learn to be bold, gather insights, and ensure you and your participants are much more engaged in evaluation. Some of the methods you will learn about include using pictures, videos, focus groups and interviews, observations, and fun activities. You will learn to:

• Match the right method to your questions, needs, and population
• Design a process that uses your skills and allows you and your participants to have fun
• Ensure that the information you get is relevant and valid
• Analyze data so that you can share findings with stakeholders and funders

This workshop is part of the 2012 Evaluation Series, a five-part series for nonprofit board and staff.

About the Series

Maintaining Sanity: Finding Ways to Benefit from Your Evaluation Work

Nonprofit leaders need to know their impact – so that they can feel good about the work they do, help their staff make a greater difference, recruit committed staff and board members, negotiate advantageous partnerships, and gain funding. However, measuring and demonstrating that impact can be stressful!

In this series, you’ll learn how to measure impact in a way that fits in with all of the other work you do. The tips you gain will be easy to implement, with a great big payoff – a more systematic approach to evaluation that is aligned with your other work and leads to results that can easily be shared with those you care about.

Sign up for one, or all, of these evaluation sessions so you can stop worrying about evaluation and start demonstrating your impact. Attend a workshop individually or register for all five in the series. Appropriate audiences for these workshops include: nonprofit leaders, program managers, development officers, and board members serving on program committees.

By attending this series, you will learn:

• How to craft outcomes and indicators that make sense for you, your stakeholders and your funders
• Making the most of common evaluation tools, particularly surveys and program databases
• Using more creative methods for gathering data, so that you can have fun while you learn and increase the buy-in of your participants
• Finding streamlined ways to analyze and summarize your data so that you understand it immediately and have key messages to share
• How to prepare great evaluation reports that can be adapted for a wide variety of uses

Each session will include:

• Handouts describing how-to and showing examples
• Links to web-based resources you can use immediately
• Other resources you can access as needs arise
• Opportunities to get to know an evaluation expert and colleagues who share similar challenges
• Access to a web-based professional learning focused on evaluation in the nonprofit sector

This five-part series includes the following workshops:

• Establishing an Evaluation Practice that Works for You, Wednesday, 2/29
• Surveys – The Most Common Tool in Evaluation, Monday, 3/19
• Get Creative, Have Fun, and Learn Something New: Evaluate Your Programs in Innovative Ways, Wednesday, 4/4
• Tricks for Analysis that will Help You Stay Focused on Impact, Monday, 4/23
• Share your Results, Engage your Stakeholders, Wednesday, 5/16
   

You can register for this single session in the series by clicking on the above Register Now button, or you register for the entire series of four workshops and save! The series is $200 for all five workshops for MCN members/$285 for all five workshops for nonmembers. Register for the series now!

About the Presenter

Leah is the CEO of The Improve Group, a St. Paul-based international firm focused on evaluation, research and strategic planning. She and her team have worked with hundreds of clients such as the Kennedy Center, the nation’s busiest arts facility which touches millions of people each year through performances and by nurturing new works of art; Mercy Corps, which works in over 100 countries and more than 16 million people each year; and Lutheran Social Services, Minnesota’s largest nonprofit social services organization. She has gathered knowledge from over twelve years of experience helping nonprofits to measure and demonstrate impact, which in turn leads to improved services, innovation, and increased ability to build support. Her audiences and her clients rave about her proven methods of taking information and data and simplifying it in such a way so that organizations can sustain impact, make clear decisions and raise funds easier. After working with the Improve Group, organizations find that their data starts to communicate a picture of what can happen in new ways and with new clarity.