Evaluation

Briefing papers

Cluster Consulting: Evaluation Services for Groups of Grantees
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 purposely build their evaluation capacity, including an evaluation design and products and tools that may used in an organization's evaluation.

The Sustainability Formula
The size of a nonprofit's operating budget is not necessarily the best metric for determining its sustainability. This couldn't be more apparent in the current economic climate where many nonprofits have to make tough decisions about cutting programs and staff or shutting their doors altogether. TCC Group conducted a statistical analysis of the factors that correlate to organizational sustainability for approximately 700 nonprofit organizations that used its Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT). The paper highlights the three main factors that determine a nonprofit's sustainability: leadership, adaptability, and program capacity.

What Makes an Effective Advocacy Organization?
This paper, researched and written by Senior Consultant Jared Raynor and Director of Research and Development, Pete 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"
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
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
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."

Books & Reports

A Funder's Guide to Evaluation: Leveraging Evaluation to Improve Nonprofit Effectiveness
TCC Group's Director of Evaluation, Pete York, authored a funder's guide to evaluation. Click here for an order form.

Articles

Development and implementation of an evaluation strategy for measuring conservation outcomes
The Philadelphia Zoo's Measuring Mission project assessed the conservation-related impacts of a visit to the Zoo and documented the results in a way that would provide a set of easily actionable planning strategies.

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.

A Climate Change in Evaluation: Leadership in Difficult Times

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