PROGRAM EVALUATION Archives | Effective Communities Project

Program Evaluation

October 18, 2019 Steve Mayer

Create interesting and usable evaluation designs that produce interesting and usable answers that can strengthen the organization, advance its mission, and gain support. Useful titles include: Wanted: Better Evaluation Practices for a Better Philanthropy How […]

Dashboards for Philanthropy

June 15, 2019 Steve Mayer

You hear a lot from funders these days about their hunger for “dashboards” that display the latest information to guide their decision-making. Dashboards have taken over the corporate sector as part of the “business intelligence” […]

The Corrupting Power of Numbers

June 13, 2019 Steve Mayer

There’s a hopeful mantra going around in evaluation circles that “you get what you measure.” Personally, I don’t believe it; I’ve been trying to measure social justice for years, and I can’t say I’ve seen […]

Guidelines for Effective Adult Literacy Programs

June 12, 2018 Steve Mayer

Present attention of the adult literacy movement too often focuses on the number of adult illiterates, the number of programs, the number of people in those programs, and the number of volunteers. But numbers are […]

Rural Public Radio – Who Says “Quality” Can’t Be Evaluated?

May 23, 2018 Steve Mayer

“Mainstreet Radio,” a special series started in 1987 by Minnesota Public Radio, had the mission of reporting from rural Minnesota to all of Minnesota. While they were still planning, we were engaged to help […]

Wanted: Better Evaluation Practices for a Better Philanthropy

December 14, 2017 themightymo

Philanthropy by definition is a noble endeavor. Yet people want to know, “what good does philanthropy do?” The answer is hard to get, partly because philanthropy doesn’t really want to know, and evaluation doesn’t really know how to serve up good answers. This article illuminates the dilemma. […]

Effective Communities Project

Steven E. Mayer, Ph.D.

PROGRAM EVALUATION