You want more money.
I get it. We all do.
Too often I hear organizations say they want to do evaluation, or have an evaluation done, so that they can get more funding dollars. But when evaluation is closely tied with fund development efforts, something is off.
Now let’s think about this for a minute.
Do social profit organizations exist to get more money?
Or do they exist to make a greater impact in their community?
Exactly.
If you want to do evaluation so that you get can more money, then you are doing it for all the wrong reasons. And likely, it’s not going to work out for you.
If you are interested in evaluation because you want to do a better job, to be more effective, impactful, efficient, and relevant, then you are on the right track.
Organizations that have comprehensive evaluation strategies and plans are more likely to reach their goals.
Why?
Because evaluation is a key component to being a learning centered, growth minded organization.
You’ve got to take a minute to pause and reflect on what’s working and not. You can’t keep spinning your wheels.
I understand that organizations want to engage with and use evaluation for a multitude of reasons. And using evaluation so that you can better communicate with your stakeholders (including your funders) is a valid and extremely important reason.
But it can’t be the only one.
Funders don’t want to fund organizations just because they do evaluation and report on their outcomes. They want to fund organizations that are doing effective work.
So if you want more money as an organization, don’t focus just on how to get more funding dollars. Focus on doing effective work. Use evaluation as a foundational learning tool – to support your programs, not your fund development. Take a minute to reflect on your data, and grow and improve.
And if we get our priorities aligned, we’ll all be better off for it.
INSIGHT TO IGNITE:
- Who champions evaluation in your organization? Your leadership staff? Your programs staff? Or your fund development staff?
- What are the motivations you or your organization have for engaging with evaluation?
- Does your organization have a learning-centered, growth-minded culture? How can evaluation support those efforts?
Matteah Spencer Reppart is the founder and visionary leader of PROPONENTS LLC, an independent consulting firm providing evaluation services for programs and organizations. With a passion for individual, organizational, and community growth & progress, Matteah is an advocate for reflective practices in our personal and professional spaces and utilizes evaluation tools towards those ends. As we gain insight into where we are in order to move forward, Matteah maintains a commitment to fully and authentically showing up in her work and encourages her clients to do the same.
One of the things I love about evaluation is that it COULD (not always) give organizations “flags to fly” that does communicate successes to stakeholders, including funders. But this post really is a critique of our embedded, neoliberal culture that espouses a form of capitalism that equates humans with “products” and forces researchers and evaluators into the “what works” method of evaluation – which precludes deeper questions, such as what works for who? What doesn’t work for some? And why doesn’t it “work” for everybody. This is the same situation as schools are in – jumping through hoops just to get money. That is the game the capitalists want us to play – because as long as we are busy hoop-jumping, we cannot enact real change. We are too busy trying to get someone to throw us a bone. There are, and always will be I believe, funders who want to see real change. Stop chasing money. Do good work. People will fund good work that really impacts people. Good work attracts money. And evaluation helps tell the story of the good work that has been done – and what needs to happen for the good work to get better and continue. Let’s change the conversation. I think I just said “YEAH – WHAT SHE SAID!”
This right here: “Stop chasing money. Do good work. People will fund good work that really impacts people. Good work attracts money. And evaluation helps tell the story of the good work that has been done – and what needs to happen for the good work to get better and continue. Let’s change the conversation.”
Love how succinctly you put it Martha!
Thank you for clear, concise, compelling clarification of the purpose not only of fund development and how to do it with integrity, more successfully, but also the reminder to strive for greater effectiveness. Yes.
Reading this helps explain why over the years I have seen workshops related to fundraising sold out while we have had to build artificial demand for workshops on program evaluation and evaluation capacity building, although things are slowly getting better. That dichotomy portrays a culture to me that is driven by resource dependency, one that appears to be the insatiable appetite to raise the next dollar and overall that should bring embarrassment and shame to the sector. The picture painted here is that organizations are interested in raising money but in ensuring their programs are as effective as can be so they serve the people they do to the best of their ability. As Matteah points out the desire to engage in evaluation should be for the right reason, and for me I see it as an ethical responsibility to the people you serve driven by that inconvenient detail known as the organization’s mission. While raising money is undoubtedly necessary for an organization and its programs to survive, thrive and grow, it should not dominate the culture and psyche to the point where other management concerns in the organization.
Ironically, there can be a symbiotic relationship between fundraising and program evaluation as Matteah points out here. In the vein of shameless self-promotion, you can read all about the fundraiser’s role in evaluation capacity building in my journal article The Impact of the Demand for Program Evaluation on Professional Fundraisers in the Fall 2015 edition of the Journal of the Grant Professionals Associations. I published a recent follow up article to that piece entitled Refocusing Our Lens to Examine Program Evaluation From Within in the Winter 2018 edition of AFP’s Advancing Philanthropy.
Thanks Matteah for getting this dialogue started, and I hope it continues.
Thank you for sharing those resources Sal! I am looking forward to checking them out. Thank YOU for all you’ve done to push the conversation further. Grateful for your work and leadership!