To show the effectiveness of their programs, nonprofits are asked to evaluate and assess them. W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Logic Model Development Guide provides practical assistance to the underlying principles of "logic modeling" so nonprofit staff and community members can enhance their program planning, implementation, and dissemination.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation's 2017 Step-by-Step Guide to Evaluation: How to Become Savvy Evaluation Consumers provides a framework for evaluation as a useful program tool for grantees, nonprofits, and community leaders. "The original handbook provides a framework for thinking about evaluation as a relevant and useful program tool.
Some organizations are reluctant to start the planning process because of vague fears about where it might lead and what it might entail. Defeat the Planning Dreads demystifies common concerns and illuminates the benefits planning can bring.
Common Ground is a publication of the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits.
Candid (formerly GrantSpace) outlines the process and steps to create a business plan, which can help a nonprofit organization describe how it intends to implement its mission and achieve its set of goals. Additionally, the National Council for Nonprofits offers administration guides about Business Planning for Nonprofits.
Whether it’s a consultant to facilitate organizational planning, develop a capital fundraising campaign, or help the board and staff navigate an organizational merger, professionals can often provide the expertise we all need from time to time to better manage our nonprofits. There are many considerations when hiring and engaging consultants. This guide is meant to provide you with some basic tips for hiring, interviewing, and working with consultants to ensure that your experience is productive and worthwhile.
Stage-based Nonprofit Lifecycles (based on Dr. Susan Kenny Stevens' book Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity) walks through the various stages of a nonprofit lifecyle and helps organizations determine where they fall.
An organizational climate survey measures an organization's strengths and areas for improvement on several levels: pertaining to the organization, each work department, and specific jobs/roles. Adapt this sample to conduct a survey of your organization.
Innovation Network provides program planning and evaluation consulting, training, and web-based tools to nonprofits and funders across geographic and programmatic boundaries. The organization works to make evaluation accessible to all nonprofits, so they have the knowledge and skills to manage and improve their work.
A commonly-used tool, the logic model graphically depicts your program, initiative, project, or even the sum total of all of your nonprofit's work. It also serves as a foundation for program planning and evaluation.
Impact is the difference your nonprofit makes: there's the work you do and the results that flow from it.