Over the past several months, the Improve Group team spent some time reflecting on how cultural competence informs and is present in our work. There is extensive academic and practical work focusing on cultural competence, and we were able to explore several definitions (such as in this compilation).
Cultural competence is important to evaluation practice for several reasons:
July 12, 2012 - 5:58pm
July 9, 2012 - 8:36pm
As explained by the Balanced Scorecard Institute, the balanced scorecard was designed by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton ”as a performance measurement framework that added strategic, non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more balanced view of organizational performance” (see Balanced Scorecard Basics).
May 30, 2012 - 4:18pm
The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota formed over a year ago to focus specifically on issues here; it is one of three foundations (the other two are focused on Colorado and California) that emerged from the prior Phillips Family Foundation.
May 30, 2012 - 4:16pm
Foundations share similar needs and dilemmas as nonprofits and the public sector when it comes to evaluation. The Council on Foundations’ website lists reasons for involving and even expanding the philanthropic community in evaluation work, such as gauging the appropriateness of the objectives of the grants or the likelihood of raising additional funds.
May 7, 2012 - 8:56am
We all need refreshers on current grammar and writing rules and expectations. April 19, 2012 - 2:28pm
Over the past few years I’ve had several opportunities to teach evaluation. Most of my students have been people who manage programs or provide direct services in government or nonprofits. Often, evaluation is just one of many responsibilities they have in their work. I’m sure I’ve learned just as much as my students—including:
April 19, 2012 - 2:23pm
If you teach, lead workshops, or run group activities, you have probably asked participants to evaluate their experience. Here are a few tips to make that feedback truly useful:
April 17, 2012 - 7:30pm
With over 200 attendees and dozens of speakers, Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute (MESI) 2012 was a stimulating, high quality conference for evaluators, students and anyone seeking more knowledge about the field. MESI provides a casual environment conducive to talking 1:1 with experts and sharing your own experience. I was pleased to meet a number of people who were not evaluators by trade, but there to learn about integrating evaluation in their own work.