After Completing the Reading, Provide a Brief Review of Evaluation

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The Answer is Nonprofits are composed of multiple subparts, including their programs and services, management, governance, available resources, and administrative systems, which may not always align in their functioning. Often, capacity building focuses on organizational leadership (i.e., Boards of Directors) and management teams and is most often framed as technical assistance, strategic planning, or grant funding. While supporting leadership to use data in decision-making and strategic planning is important, evaluation capacity can be leveraged beyond a "top-down" approach to strengthen and grow the nonprofit's various parts.
Understanding nonprofit capacity as a reflection of an organization and its parts along a developmental continuum can provide a useful lens for considering effective evaluation strategies. Stage theories classify nonprofits along a predictable continuum, beginning with initial phases of an Idea (i.e., a project proposal) and Start-Up (i.e., core staff and functions), followed by periods of Growth and Maturity, and in some cases, stages of Decline, Turnaround, or Termination. During periods of growth, evaluation can be particularly useful in developing a nonprofit's "distinctive competencies" that distinguish its work in the community. Because nonprofit evaluation necessitates navigating growth and change at the levels of the organization and its subparts, the work of an evaluator within one nonprofit, and even within one program area, may and should look different from the work within another due to variations in development and capacity.

After Completing the Reading, Provide a Brief Review of Evaluation

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