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In this video, I give my very brief definition of nonprofit program evaluation. In my view, evaluation is not:
- Financial auditing
- Magic
Other definitions that I talk about are:
- The American Evaluation Association’s definition: “Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness.”
- An unattributed definition: “Evaluation = Research + Valuing”
My definition is much more simple:
Evaluation is measuring progress towards program goals.
In future videos, I will show how we all engage in evaluation daily and how beginning to evaluate your nonprofit’s programs is not nearly as scary as you might think!