This is my last of four posts reflecting on the insights and lessons within Innovation Network’s 2016 State of Evaluation report.
One of the things I love most about this report is the way it pulls back the curtain and demystifies evaluation in nonprofits. We tend to think that the organizations that do evaluation well have resources, expertise, and tools that are beyond our reach. When, in fact, the most critical supports are for us to create!
When asked which organizational supports were helpful to their evaluation efforts, 77% highlighted the value of leadership support. I can’t agree more.
Every single nonprofit leader I know would say that they value and support evaluation, yet few know how to show it. Leaders have to change the ways they behave, communicate, and make decisions if they want to build evaluative organizations and make the most of evaluation efforts.
Leading Evaluative Organizations
5 ways leaders can and should show support for evaluation:
- Value it – Express an intrinsic motivation and value for evaluation, learning, and improvement. Don’t just do it to satisfy funders or accreditors.
- Get Real – Be willing to ask the tough questions and hear difficult answers.
- Require it & Use it – Ask for and use data to inform your decision-making. Put your weight on it.
- Make Time & Space – Make, protect, and prioritize the time and space for meaningful reflection on data and learning.
- Build it In – Commit to creating repeatable and regular processes so evaluation becomes a way of thinking and being, not another reactive or isolated task.
As Bridgespan says in their report Building Capacity to Measure and Manage Performance, “Without a leader who is committed to measurement as a top priority, articulates how it enhances impact, and identifies someone within the organization to lead the change, organizations will not overcome the natural reluctance among staff to embrace what seems like such an overwhelming enterprise.”