Program Evaluation Capacity for Nonprofit Human Services Organizations: An Analysis of Determining Factors

Abstract

The increasing call for accountability combined with increasing competition for resources has given program evaluation more importance, prominence and attention within the United States nonprofit sector. It has become a major focus for nonprofit leaders, funders, accrediting organizations, board members, individual donors, the media and scholars. Within this focus however there is emerging attention and literature on the concept of evaluation capacity building to discover what organizations require to be able to effectively and efficiently evaluate their programs. This study examines this topic within the environment and stakeholder relationship dynamics of nonprofit human service organizations. A multi-stakeholder research approach using qualitative interviews of executive directors, board chairs, program staff, funders and evaluators, as well as two case studies, is employed to provide insight into the factors that determine an organization’s evaluation capacity. The overarching goal of this research is to impart this information to stakeholders interested in program evaluation, by analyzing elements for capacity beyond the more common, narrow scope of financial resources and evaluation skills. This purposeful approach intends to broaden our understanding of evaluation capacity building to encompass developing the necessary resources, culture, leadership and environments in which meaningful evaluations can be conducted for nonprofit human service programs. Results indicated that effective evaluation capacity building requires more than just funds, personnel and expertise. Some of the important factors that impacted this process included leadership; value orientations; congruence among stakeholders for their perceptions of evaluation terms and concepts; resource dependency; quality signaling; stakeholder involvement and understanding of their role in program evaluation; organizational culture; organizational learning; personal preferences; and the utilization of available evaluation tools. This study suggests that stakeholders interested in effectively building capacity to evaluate programs should be cognizant of these political, financial, social, intellectual, practical, structural, cultural and contextual implications.