Category Archives: Evaluation

Conference Blog: Catapult Labs 2012

Did you miss the Catapult Labs conference on May 19?  Then you missed something extraordinary. But don’t worry, you can get the recap here. The event was sponsored by Catapult Design, a nonprofit firm in San Francisco that uses the … Continue reading

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Filed under Program Design, Program Evaluation, Evaluation, Design, Conference Blog

Measuring Impact: Integrating Evaluation & Design (Workshop May 19 in SF)

Interested in design for social change?  Curious about how to measure the social impact of your designs?  Check out my upcoming San Francisco workshop—Measuring Impact: Integrating Evaluation & Design–taking place on May 19 as part of CatapultLabs: Design Tools to … Continue reading

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Filed under Conference Blog, Design, Evaluation, Program Design, Program Evaluation

Conference Blog: The Wharton “Creating Lasting Change” Conference

How can corporations promote the greater good?  Can they do good and be profitable?  How well can we measure the good they are doing? These were some of the questions explored at a recent Wharton School Conference entitled Creating Lasting … Continue reading

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Running Hot and Cold for Mixed Methods: Jargon, Jongar, and Code

Jargon is the name we give to big labels placed on little ideas. What should we call little labels placed on big ideas? Jongar, of course. A good example of jongar in evaluation is the term mixed methods. I run … Continue reading

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Filed under Commentary, Evaluation, Evaluation Quality, Program Evaluation, Research

Evaluator, Watch Your Language

As I was reading a number of evaluation reports recently, the oddity of evaluation jargon struck me.  It isn’t that we have unusual technical terms—all fields do—but that we use everyday words in unusual ways.  It is as if we … Continue reading

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Filed under Evaluation, Evaluation Quality, Program Evaluation

Conference Blog: The Harvard Social Enterprise Conference (Day 2)

What follows is a second series of short posts written while I attended the Social Enterprise Conference (#SECON12).  The conference (February 25-26) was presented by the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. I spent much of the day … Continue reading

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Filed under Conference Blog, Design, Evaluation, Program Design, Program Evaluation

Conference Blog: The Harvard Social Enterprise Conference (Day 1)

What follows is a series of short posts written while I attended the Social Enterprise Conference (#SECON12).  The conference (February 25-26) was presented by the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. What is a social enterprise? The concept … Continue reading

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Filed under Conference Blog, Evaluation, Program Evaluation

EVALentine Day (February 15)

Happy EVALentine Day!  On 2/15, share your love of evaluation with others.  Teach someone about evaluation.  Learn something about evaluation.  Let the world know that evaluation has the power to change the world.

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Should the Pie Chart Be Retired?

The ability to create and interpret visual representations has been an important part of the human experience since we began drawing on cave walls at Chauvet. Today, that ability—what I call visualcy—has even greater importance.  We use visuals to discover … Continue reading

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Filed under Design, Evaluation, Visualcy

A National Holiday and US Postage Stamp for Evaluation

Evaluation is an invisible giant, a profession that impacts society on a grand scale yet remains unseen.  I want to change that.  But what can one person do to raise awareness about evaluation? Go big.  And you can help. A … Continue reading

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Filed under Evaluation, Program Evaluation