Most organizations that receive federal or state funding and even private funding are required to complete some type of needs assessment. This might be part of their grant application or annual program update. The purpose of the needs assessment (which we talk more about here and here) is to help organizations align their services to meet…
4 Steps to Complete a Program Evaluation
Program evaluation helps organizations determine if the change that they set to accomplish actually occurred. Change can be knowledge gained, attitude change, or behavior change. For example, did a literacy tutoring program help the students who were not reading on grade level actually catch up to reading on grade level by the end of the…
How to Engage Diverse Stakeholders in Your Planning
When creating a strategic plan or going through any organizational planning process, who do you engage in that process for feedback? In May, we discussed the 4 Steps of Strategic Planning. Step one is collaboration – Collaborate with key stakeholders to inform the strategic planning process and create buy-in and ownership in the plan. Who…
Does Your Organization Have a Continuous Quality Improvement Process?
During a time where communities and policies are changing, it is important to ensure the programs and services within those communities are constantly evolving to meet the needs of families. The Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) model is an ongoing process for organizations to be able to determine whether or not a change made led to…
Putting Equitable Evaluation into Practice
Does your evaluation process accurately represent the population you serve? The marginalized and less privileged? We shared in this blog that evaluation is a process that helps organizations determine if the change that they set to accomplish actually occurred. We follow a 4-step evaluation process: (1) establish clear outcomes, (2) create or modify data tools…
Learn About Indiana’s Youngest Children with the 2019 ELAC Annual Report!
Indiana’s Early Learning Advisory Committee (ELAC) released its 2019 Annual Report. Each year, ELAC completes a needs assessment on the state’s early childhood education system and then recommends solutions. We want to share some quick highlights and key takeaways from this year’s needs assessment. ELAC focuses on ensuring early childhood education is accessible, high-quality, and…
5 W’s of a Process Evaluation: Part 2
In a recent blog post, we introduced the first two W’s of a process evaluation: Why conduct a process evaluation Who should conduct a process evaluation This blog post will cover the remaining three W’s: What methods to use to conduct a process evaluation Where to conduct a process evaluation When to conduct a process…
5 W’s of a Process Evaluation: Part 1
When it comes to program evaluation, people often think of evaluating the effectiveness and outcomes of their program. They may not think about evaluating how the program was administered or delivered, which may affect the program outcomes. There are several types of valuable evaluations that do not focus on outcomes. One type of evaluation, called…
4 Steps to Create a Dashboard
In today’s information age, organizations are overwhelmed with the amount of information that they collect, track and monitor. Non-profit leaders must decipher all the data to determine what is meaningful and relevant to share with staff, funders, Boards of Directors and other community partners. A dashboard is a great tool to bring all the critical…
Are You Data Literate?
Recently the TCG team participated in a data visualization challenge at the Indy Big Data Conference, and this experience has led me to writing a blog on data literacy. What is data literacy? Merriam Webster defines being literate as “having knowledge or competence”, and being competent with data is a foundational skill we all need…