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In Praise of Going Local: The Promise of Workarounds as Evaluative Indicators
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| Presenter(s):
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| David Campbell, University of California, Davis, dave.c.campbell@ucdavis.edu
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| Abstract:
“Going local” is typically a term of derision in evaluation circles, but privileging the local perspective may actually improve evaluative practice. I describe an evaluative approach that takes the perspective of local grantees as its starting point, rather than the perspective of funders interested in whether their resources are being used wisely. The approach uses workarounds—occasions where grantees deliberately evade funder compliance demands that are deemed contradictory to the goals sought—as key evaluative indicators. Current accountability regimes—and the modes of evaluation that support these regimes—drive conversation about workarounds underground. The prevailing attitude of locals is that to reveal creative workarounds is to invite unwanted scrutiny or reprisal from grant giving agencies who interpret funding requirements literally. A more enlightened approach would treat workarounds as indicators of system flaws, using them to provoke negotiations that improve both the substance of policy and the processes of grant making.
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Strengths and Limitations of Nonprofit Evaluations in Times of Organizational Change: The Case of a Volunteer Service and a Disability Advocacy Organization Evaluating Their Programs Concurrently With the Revision of Their Strategic Plan
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| Presenter(s):
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| Michele Tarsilla, Western Michigan University, michele.tarsilla@wmich.edu
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| Abstract:
Nonprofits often conduct evaluations of their programs in response to specific funders’ requests rather than based on concrete strategic needs. As a result, nonprofits often lose the independence of their evaluation function and become less accountable to the populations which they are expected to serve. As imperfect as it is, such scenario is not immutable. External evaluators may help build evaluation capacity and promote the diffusion of an evaluative culture within nonprofits. More interestingly, through the adoption of a participatory approach, external evaluators can enhance nonprofits self-reflection and facilitate their use of evaluation findings for strategic planning purposes. This paper will (i) illustrate the case of two nonprofits in Michigan which, as a result of an external evaluation, gained back the ownership of their evaluation process and managed to successfully revise their strategic plan; and (ii) discuss the feasibility and reproducibility of such process in other nonprofits.
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