Evaluation Overview

Okay, so we've decided to give away $2,000.00.  Now what?  How do we choose the nonprofit?  Therein lies the purpose of this blog. We all want to make an impact with our giving, otherwise why give?  But how can we make the biggest impact or largest social return on investment?

It's all in the research.  When evaluating nonprofits look past their feel good marketing stories and ask a simple question: how?  Discover:

1. How did the nonprofit or program originate?  In other words, what research or evidence did the nonprofit use to base it's program?
2. How does the nonprofit evaluate it's program or organization?  Are they actually addressing the problems they've set out to? 
3. Based on their feedback and evaluations, how has the nonprofit changed or adapted its mechanics or operations?

It boils down to this: if you can't measure the good you're doing, how do you know you're actually doing good? 

*Notice the question of how my dollar was spent was left off the list.  I disagree with the popular notion of low administrative or overhead costs as a good indicator of nonprofit effectiveness.  Overhead costs are essential to evaluate current programs, explore opportunities to expand programs and partnerships, grow the nonprofit, fundraise, etc.  Just like the business saying "you have to spend money to make money," I believe a highly effective nonprofit will have overhead costs.  Also, nonprofits are snarky and what constitutes operational costs versus administrative costs is fungible.*