PROED 547 - Program Evaluation & High Impact Philanthropy for Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit organizations are confronting ever-greater demands to demonstrate that their programs work. In fat times, agencies have a tendency to become inefficient when revenue streams are not contingent upon measurable results, resulting is what can be termed gold poisoning. In lean times, however, it will be a survival of the fittest, both in efficiency as well as impact. One of the most perennially vexing questions in philanthropy is how to assess the impact of funding, especially where there's no obvious way of putting a price on the end product. What metrics should we measure to assess that social impact is being achieved? How do we measure the return on our social investment (SROI)? This course will help you develop systems for both program evaluation and organizational effectiveness evaluation (OEE). We will study utilization-focused evaluation and outcome assessments and define the difference between activity goals and outcome goals.We will look at tools for improving OEE such as Program Outcomes, best-practice benchmarking, logic models, and charity rating services (e.g. Charitywatch. BBB, CharityNavigator, etc.). In addition, we will take on the inevitable politics of evaluations such as the Look Good Avoid Blame (LGAB), whitewashing, and Subjective Interpretation of Reality (SIR) issues and show how trust and concern for employees results in higher ownership of evaluations. We will also become familiar with leading metrics, such as Robin Hood, Acumen Fund (BACO), and a recent work commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.