The Power of Evaluation Culture- The Basics Workshop

Part 1 of the 3 Part Evaluation Culture Workshop Series: The Basics. This session covers

• What evaluation is (and how it might be different than what you think or what you’ve experienced)
• How to focus your efforts on evaluation that gets you the right information and reduces administrative burden
• Aligning evaluation with org mission, vision, strategic planning, and DEI strategy. 
• Incorporating perspectives from the community
• Staff engagement and buy-in
• Ensuring equity throughout the process

About the series:

When you hear the word “evaluation,” what comes to mind?  Requirements from funders?  An audit? Scrambling to track down information for a report? Stress?  A big question mark? 

What if I told you evaluation could be a tool to support your work while also making your funders, sponsors, and partners happy?

But, you might shy away from learning more because you are still juggling things like:

• Constant change 
• Staff Turnover/Employee buy-in 
• DEI questions within your organization
• The time and energy spent on tracking data, reporting, and evaluation

Why this 3 part series could transform your current challenges with data and increase your impact

As the founder of AS Community Consulting, I’ve worked with nonprofits for over 20 years and found that organizations that create a culture around evaluation are better able to:

• Track the information that they and their funders need — without adding extra work
• Build agility so they can quickly and appropriately respond to changes, pivots, and big questions - thereby helping you better navigate the constant change cycle
• Instill confidence in your work by backing up stories with tangible results — which naturally increases employee confidence
• Know that the work they’re doing is having the biggest impact possible on their communities

So I’m offering this three-part webinar series for those who are looking for this impact.  If you are tired of using the  “same old” methods and want to spend less on filling out reports, applications, and updates, consider signing up. 

This webinar series will walk you through how to take simple steps to incorporate evaluation into your everyday work in a way that is easy and integrated.  You will learn to use what you already know and are already doing to do it better and communicate your impact.  

These skills will not only help you have a better understanding of your own work and impact but will help you translate what you learn into a language that will resonate with existing funders, potential donors, and your community.  

What topics are the three sessions covering?

Within this webinar series, you will learn:

• Creative ways to apply evaluation basics to your real-life situation and  stress-free evaluation techniques that you can use in your everyday work without adding extra busy work
• How to enhance and support your programmatic, experiential, and community-based knowledge with real-time contextual data
• How to incorporate equity-based principles into your data-gathering and evaluation activities
• How to plan for evaluation and talk about it with funders and donors and how to engage your staff, participants, and community with the process

Content covered in each session includes:

• The Basics
  • What evaluation is (and how it might be different than what you think or what you’ve experienced)
  • How to focus your efforts on evaluation that gets you the right information and reduces administrative burden
  • Aligning evaluation with org mission, vision, strategic planning, and DEI strategy. 
  • Incorporating perspectives from the community
  • Staff engagement and buy-in
  • Ensuring equity throughout the process
• Planning 
  • Go through the steps to build an effective and useful logic model that can be repurposed instead of a reporting activity
  • Find the balance between collecting the information you need to report and what you need to do you your work best
  • Incorporate evaluation info into reports and proposals
  • Build a foundation that supports both your evaluation activities and organization at large
• Answering Questions 
  • Learn the basics of different data collection methods and deciding between different data collection activities (like whether to conduct a survey or focus groups)  
  • Find hidden data collection opportunities you’re already doing
  • Making sense of data and understanding what all the numbers are telling you
  • Integrating evaluation into organizational processes
  • Walk through an example to apply these concepts to your own work

You’ll also gain these skills:

1. How to use what you are already doing to better communicate your impact
2. Tools you can use to tap into and leverage the community in a holistic manner
3. How to leverage your staff’s expertise and institutional knowledge in a manner that causes no harm

FAQS

This sounds like a tough topic to learn. How difficult is it?

Too often, evaluation tools and techniques are delivered in a very technical manner.  I am sharing the tools from a community-based practical lens.  You’ll get the same content that graduate students are learning from a real-world perspective without the complicated technical jargon.

We tried to use evaluation before.  It didn’t work. Why should we try again?

I do understand.  The topic is VAST, and there might be a number of reasons why it didn’t work.  I recommend you consider this series by AS Community Consulting, which facilitates learning using a lens that makes evaluation accessible, meaningful, and transformative. 

I'm busy, and I don’t want to be stuck taking classes. What can I do instead?

Rest IS important.  So I am purposefully offering this series in an on-demand webinar format.  You can watch at your leisure whether you are busy with programming or taking some well-deserved time off.

Pricing 

We have materials available at various price points, including free/ donation-based resources and multiple options to access the Workshop Series content.

If you're looking for an opportunity to ask questions on workshop content, get feedback on your unique context, or work through a question in your organization, we have a bundle available that will give you a discounted rate Q&A session on the products page!

Our focus on Equity-Based Pricing

AS Community Consulting follows an equity-based sliding scale model for all clients.  If you are interested in paying it forward (wealth distribution), we appreciate a Pay It Forward donation available on our products page. 

If you are in high need, please email hello@asevaluation.com for more information on accessibility rates.

If you would like to learn more about our pricing model, including guidance on redistribution and accessibility rates, please visit our website: https://www.asevaluation.com/sliding-scale

If you would like to share this content with your team, please contact us at hello@asevaluation.com for more information on group and institutional rates.

I want to make sure that you are able to start by feeling empowered around evaluation.