Evaluation Capacity and Nonprofit Organizations

Abstract

In this article, we explore the evaluation capacity of today’s nonprofit organizations. We report the findings of a cluster analysis that suggest that when it comes to evaluation, there are three types of nonprofit organizations. The first type of nonprofit organization is one that, by most accounts, is satisfied with their evaluation efforts. Although these organizations report that they struggle with not having as much time as they would like to devote to evaluation, they are fairly satisfied with their levels of evaluation expertise and report having few problems with the implementation of evaluation systems. The second type of organization has some struggles with evaluation. These organizations report having internal support for evaluation from management, the board and staff, and some capacity to implement an evaluation system, yet they struggle with evaluation design issues, data collection, and resources for evaluation. The third type of organization is one that is struggling across the board. These organizations report having substantial implementation challenges, in terms of lacking basic resources (i.e., staff, funding, time), lacking evaluation expertise, and they report having little support for evaluation from funders, the board, management, and staff. We conclude by exploring the implications of these findings.