Ten Ideas to Strengthen the NonProfit Sector

In this posting I offer 10 ideas that non profit sector organizations might consider undertaking to strengthen themselves.. All of them may not be necessary to the same degree for your organization but this list of ten transformations does, I believe, contain at least several major changes your organization should at least think about. Here they are in no particular order.

Measuring Results

Everyone wants to do this. And everyone in the evaluation business has something to say about how to do it. So why not us too!

We believe the evaluation of results is less complicated than organizations make it. Of course, we know from experience that often evaluating our work is made cumbersome by funders and regulators, but for now let’s pretend they are not in the mix.

Here is how we approach the evaluation of results. We start with some simple questions.

1. What are you trying to accomplish for which people?
2. What are the measures that guide your work with these people?
3. What is the current benchmark of each of those measures?
4. What are your goals about surpassing the benchmark over what period of time?
5. What will indicate progress toward your goals?
6. What will you do to achieve the goals (strategies and actions) over what period of time?

Example: Answering the questions
To offer some clarity, let’s answer the questions above for a neighborhood-based employment program.