Nonprofit organizations face high demand from communities for services, and increasing expectations from funders and policymakers for evidence of impact. For many years, traditional evaluations, such as randomized control trials (RCT), have been used to demonstrate the impact of programs. This evidence building method, if done prematurely, can often leave nonprofits with findings of minimal…
The Role of the Practitioner in the Next Generation of Evidence
In the next generation model for evidence building, we envision that practitioners become the drivers of their evidence agendas, equipped with the strategies, tools, and talent they need to rigorously evaluate their programs and strengthen outcomes for the communities they serve. We imagine an ecosystem less governed by power, misplaced incentives, and sluggish learning, and…
Empowering Practitioners to Drive the Evidence Train: Building the Next Generation of Evidence
The movement toward greater use of data and evidence in social programs is encouraging, and there is a widely shared commitment to achieving better outcomes for the vulnerable segments of society served by nonprofits. At the same time, the current paradigm for using evaluation to get those outcomes has faced challenges. It is time to…
The Request for Information Guide: Improving Government Human Services Contracting
Project Evident and Results for America are excited to announce the release of a brand new, jointly produced Request for Information Guide. This year-in-the-making RFI guide leads government and human services providers through a series of Collaborative Procurement Questions that can be used over the course of the entire government contracting process, including in an RFI itself, to strengthen…