Evaluation

Learning in Public
In response to growing demand for information from the nonprofit capacity-building field, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation launched the OE Goldmine Research Project to collect, organize, and analyze data from its Organizational Effectiveness Program. TCC Group's evaluation team was engaged to examine a number of key organizational effectiveness questions and then using an innovative "learning in public" approach to further refine findings and disseminate key learnings. In the spirit of that approach, we're sharing our findings.

• Read the project overview
• Read the executive summary
• Read the project report

Cluster Consulting: Evaluation Services for Groups of Grantees (2011)
As part of TCC Group's Cohort Consulting services, our Evaluation Department offers an effective and cost-efficient way to help groups of grantees build their evaluation capacity, including an evaluation design and products and tools that may used in an organization's evaluation.

The Literature Review (March 2011)
Senior Partner and Chief Research and Learning Officer Peter York talks about how the literature review, a basic but underutilized research tool, can become the bridge between lofty promises and direct, measurable results.

Development and implementation of an evaluation strategy for measuring conservation outcomes (September 2009)
In a recent issue of Zoo Biology, TCC Group's Peter York and Jared Raynor assessed the conservation-related impact of a visit to The Philadelphia Zoo and provided a set of actionable strategies.

What Makes an Effective Advocacy Organization? (January 2009)
This paper, researched and written by Director of Evaluation Jared Raynor and Senior Partner and Chief Research and Learning Officer, Peter York, and former TCC consultant, Shao Chee Sim draws on a variety of sources, looking at the context for policy and advocacy work and the distinctive characteristics of such work, outlining a model for evaluating organizational capacity and describing how this is adapted for advocacy organizations.

Effective Nonprofit Evaluation: Through a "Community of Learners" (November 2008)
TCC's Associate Director of Evaluation, Chantell Johnson and affiliate, Allison Crean, CEO of Informed Educators Consulting Group, provide seven pragmatic steps for effectively building the evaluation capacity of stakeholders while designing a complex evaluation.

Creating a Community of Learners: Successful Evaluative Learning for Nonprofits and Funders (2006)
The increasing emphasis on evaluation and accountability has led nonprofits to reconsider how they conduct evaluations in an effort to find a way that is both meaningful to the staff and useful for their funders. This paper explores the Community of Learners approach as an evaluation method that actively involves the staff and leaders of a foundation or nonprofit in the evaluation process.

Learning As We Go: Making Evaluation Work for Everyone (June 2003)
This paper distills what TCC has learned about evaluative learning and provides information and tools to help you take the next steps so everyone can "learn as we go."

Evaluating Capacity-building Efforts for Nonprofit Organizations (2002)
This paper explains how funders, management support organizations, evaluators, and nonprofits can evaluate efforts to enhance the management and governance of nonprofit organizations.

Creating a Community of Learners in an Economic Recession
Evaluation in tough economic times is not an oxymoron, as funders bring an even more critical eye to their grantees, ensuring that dollars are well-spent and creating the desired impact.Now is the time to emphasize building an organization's capacity for evaluation, becoming smart consumers of evaluation by effectively allocating the right resources, facilitating learning and developing existing assets within the organization.