Story. stats. strategy.

Recently I attended a conference at the University of Denver, hosted by students of the Research Methods and Statistics program. The conference was informative, to say the least. One thing that stood out to me: “Nonprofits are reluctant to engage in program evaluation because the term ‘evaluation’ has a stigma associated with it.” Nonprofit leaders see…

Have you ever wondered, “What do donors expect from nonprofit organizations when they give large gifts?” One consulting firm (Edwards, 2006) explored this question by surveying a group of donors who represented more than $1.35 billion in givable assets. The resulting statements were organized into 11 categories, and the number #2 response was . .…

What does it take to move a donor from giving once to becoming a recurring donor According to an article in the Nonprofit Quarterly, a key driver is donor satisfaction. What does that even mean? The article goes on to explain that donor satisfaction has at least two components. There are many others of course, but for now,…

Program Evaluation: Donors vs. Nonprofits Why do you evaluate your programs? To provide accountability to your donors? To measure what you’re doing right or wrong? To gain access to more funding? Well, if you work for a nonprofit organization, you probably identified with several of these goals. However, your reasons for conducting a program evaluation may differ…