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Think for a moment - who were the bosses you’ve had in your career who treated you right? Who took care of you? Who helped you on your journey? Who provided leadership? Insight? Support? And consider as well - who were the bosses that … didn’t do those things? It’s a hard truth about our sector, but for many people, this will ring true: the leadership we experience in nonprofits is often not what we need. There are entire spinoff industries based on this, coaching you to mana

In my last blog, I explored some of the history of evaluation, and how that history can help us understand why evaluation can be so heavy and so unhelpful. In this blog, we’ll explore some higher level ideas to support building evaluation tools and strategies that work better and feel better, starting with the idea that first made all this stuff make sense to me: Goodhart’s Law. Charles Goodhart, an economist, wrote in 1975 that, “any observed statistical regularity will tend

In nonprofit life, we can feel like we’re drowning in numbers. Funders always want more details on what we’re doing, when, and with whom. The annual report calls for data we’ve got to generate by filling in gaps of what we actually measured. The strategic plan tax comes due quarterly. We’re sending endless surveys to participants. Rarely does it feel like any of this is making our programs better. Evaluation is a major source of heartburn for almost everyone I work with, in b

After 14 years in the field, I've got some things to say. Today, I’m starting my blog with a couple of those things that I’ve got to get out of my head and into the world - so thanks for joining me. Let’s dive in.