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Boeing supports programs that promote integrated and active, lifelong learning. Focus areas include education, environment, health and human services, arts and culture, and civic engagement. To review local guidelines for your state and key aims within each focus area visit the Boeing Corporate Citizenship webpage.

 

TD Charitable Foundation 2014 Housing for Everyone Grant Competition funds creation or preservation of rental housing units for families with children. More information

Deadline: August 29, 2014

US Airways Community Foundation awards capital and building grants to nonprofits whose missions support one of the airline's three focus areas: arts, education or human services. More information

Heineman Foundation supports projects that enable economically challenged women enter and remain in the workforce, live musical performances for education and outreach, programs that enable youth to think, create, and communicate effectively, and those that promote high achievement in music, science, and literature. Application instructions 

Finish Line Youth Foundation provides funding for youth athletic programs and sports-based camps serving disadvantaged children and children with special needs. Review application guidelines 

Ben and Jerry's Foundation seeks proposals for social and environmental justice projects organized by grassroots community organizing groups with annual budgets under $500,000. More information 

Program evaluation is often motivated by a demand for accountability, but should also be inspired by a desire to learn.Beyond routine monitoring and evaluation to demonstrate accountability and project progress, successful nonprofits also regularly reflect on information and conduct impact evaluations to identify what is working and whether the effort is making a difference for the beneficiaries. Evaluation enables reflection on what needs to change in order to allocate resources in a way that creates the greatest benefits for the target population. This continuous learning process allows organizations to efficiently adapt the development strategy to new understandings of reality.

Evaluation: Analyzing data to determine the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of a program. Evaluation is used to demonstrate the impact of a program on the community and allow agencies to learn from experience.

Reflection: Learning what aspects of a program contributed the most to positive change and are deserving of more money, time, and energy. Reflection can be transformational if participants are empowered to make and act on common discoveries. Reflection enables adaptation of programs to effectively meet the changing needs of the community.

• Outcome Mapping 
• Randomized Impact Evaluation 
• Most Significant Change Analysis
• Ten Seed Technique: Kingdom Values 
• Reflection

Evaluation Topics and Key Questions

Relevance | "Degree to which the project was justified and appropriate to the need and situation"

Were the objectives of the project in line with defined needs and priorities? In what ways could the project have better met the stated needs and priorities? Would another strategy have been more in line with those needs and priorities

Effectiveness | "The extent to which the project's stated objective was achieved and how closely the activities, outputs, and outcomes detailed in the project document were implemented in practice"

Were the expected outcomes achieved? Were the planned activities adequate to realize these? What are the most important results of the projects? What strengths led to these achievements? Where the project failed to meet planned deliverables and results, why was this? What changes have occurred since the project began? How have these altered project activities?

Efficiency | "Overall project performance, outputs to inputs, financial management, schedule"

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the project design? What aspects were (not) managed efficiently (finance, HR, M&E, oversight, program)? How can the inefficiencies be improved upon?

Impact | "Present/future results of project implementation (positive/negative foreseen/unforeseen)"

What is the most significant change in community/beneficiary life? Describe before and after. How has the project impacted the local church participation, connection to community, vitality?

Sustainability | "Extent to which the project activities and resulting benefits will continue"

What processes and systems have been established to support after grant implementation? Are the changes brought about by the project expected to last? How?

Big Picture| "Future directions and lessons learned by the implementing organization"

How have people and relationships changed? Which groups have changed and how? Are community values moving toward the kingdom? Are the poor empowered to become actors and define their own history and future?

 

Outcome Mapping 

The primary objectives of the outcome mapping approach to evaluation are program learning and improvement. This holistic method assesses contributions that programs and organizations make to key outcomes and is designed to be participatory and empowering. In Outcome Mapping, outcomes are "changes in the behavior, relationships, activities, or actions of the people, groups, and organizations with whom a program works directly" and "anticipates opportunities for influence" or Boundary Partners. Outcome Mapping assumes that development programs only facilitate changes controlled by Boundary Partners by providing new resources, ideas, and opportunities, and focuses on people, relationships, and behaviors.

Intentional Design   

What is the program vision? 

Who are the program's boundary partners? 

What changes are being sought?  

How will the program contribute to change? 

Outcome and Performance Monitoring  

Establish ongoing tracking of program actions and progress toward achievement of outcomes through self-assessment 

  

Evaluation Planning
Prioritize evaluation questions and develop an evaluation plan

SOURCE: Outcomes Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs provides detailed guidelines for facilitating participatory workshops on the 12 steps. 

 

Randomized Impact Evaluation

• Was the program effective?
• How effective was it?
• Were there unintended side-effects?
• Who benefited most?
• Who was harmed?
• Why did it work or not work?
• What lessons can be applied to other contexts or during scale up?
• How cost-effective was the program?
• How does it compare to other programs designed to accomplish similar goals?

Impact is how much better off people are because of the program than they would have been without the program. It is important to define "better off" through creation of specific program goals as well as "how they would have been without the program" through defining an equivalent comparison group.   

  

Impact evaluations estimate program effectiveness by comparing outcomes of those who participated in a program against those who did not participate. The best way to find a group of people who did not participate, but closely resemble the participants had those participants not received the program, is through randomization.   

Random assignment of individuals to two statistically equivalent groups is the basis for randomized evaluation. One group receives the program being evaluated and the other does not, allowing any subsequent differences that are identified to be attributed to impact of the program. Randomization generates a statistically identical comparison group and the most accurate results.

SOURCE: Poverty Action Lab website on How to Conduct A Randomized Impact Evaluation  provides detailed information on design questions about the unit, method, and implementation of randomization, threats to design, determining appropriate sample size, timing, and ethical considerations.
 

Most Significant Change (MSC) Analysis

is a qualitative evaluation technique that involves collecting stories about change from participants and program staff, and analyzing the stories to identify "the most significant change of all."

  

1. Solicit Significant Change (SC) stories by asking the following questions:

 

  

In his or her own words, the storyteller should explain what happened, when the events occurred, and why the events in the story are significant to the storyteller.

 

2. Identify the "most significant change of all" by selecting a group to read the SC stories, discuss which stories are most significant, and document the reasons for those choices.

 

3. Provide feedback to people who provided stories explaining which story described the most significant change of all, and how and why it was selected. This step helps to create ongoing dialogue about how significant change is defined and assures participants that stories they submit are being reviewed and are valued.

 

4. Verify selected stories to improve quality of stories provided by participants, increase confidence in information obtained with this method, and to confirm accuracy of basic facts.

 

The complete set of stories and selection criteria can be used for secondary analysis to identify trends and other valuable information.

 

SOURCE: The Most Significant Change (MSC) Technique: A Guide to its Use provides ten practical steps to implementing MSC as well as an explanation of theory and ways to adapt the method.

 

Ten Seed Technique: Kingdom Values

Assemble small groups of 7-10 participants Establish a code of conduct to respect and value one another Decide roles to group members - interviewer, recorder, filter Listen with a positive attitude, being open to new perspectives

Refocus group on working with right brain orientation by using seed visual Balance between being open to new and divergent views and focusing enough to lead discussions in the direction of information being sought Ensure that everyone gets an equal opportunity to participate Diplomatically filter over-dominating ones so that others can participate

I.   Build initial rapport with the group    II.   Explain that the purpose of the exercise is to understand and learn   III.   Community identifies the relational values to which it aspires Community develops its own criteria for assessing each value

- Loyalty  - View of person

- Compassion  - Repentance

- Forgiveness  - Sharing

- Equality  - Justice

I.   Give the group ten seeds and explain that these represent the community     II.   Community move seeds into groups representing the relational values    III.   Seeds are put inside the larger overlapping circle if the community decides the particular desired changes is becoming visible in community life     IV. The number of seeds represents the community's estimate of the percentage of the community population that exhibits this change        V.   Describe each group of seeds and explain why they have been classified     VI. What factors determined segregation into the different groups?     VII. Facilitate discussions around the ten seed visual.   SOURCE: The Ten Seed Technique by Ravi Jayakaran

Reflection

is the process of analyzing monitoring and evaluation data in relation to underlying assumptions about poverty, development, and change to create wisdom and knowledge out of information. It involves revisiting vision and values, and realigning goals and activities. Both nonprofits and program participants should participate in reflection to build adaptability and self-efficacy. Beginning with the attitude that participants are competent, intelligent, and able to make sense out of information and their lives helps to empower participants in reflection.Possible Reflection Questions

• How have worldview and cultural values changed?
• What evidence do we see of improved self-efficacy among the poor?
• What are we learning about God and his plan for us through the program?
• What has happened that is (not) pleasing to God?
• Where is God leading us in the future?
• What worked and why?
• What created energy and enthusiasm among practitioners and participants?
• How can these elements be enhanced?

SOURCE: Walking with the Poor by Bryant L. Meyers