Creating a Culture of Evaluation: Chari Smith

Evaluation should be accessible, practical, and usable. Chari Smith explains how evaluation programs can help your nonprofit measure your impact and build a positive culture. Feedback, outputs, and outcomes are all critical to making your nonprofit impactful in your community.  Conversation Highlights   {00:30} Introduction of Chari {02:19} The work it takes to write a book {09:03} How do we evaluate programs to find a measurable impact on the suicide rate? {12:59} Building a culture of evaluation starts with a conversation {18:56} Hosting the Veteran Podcast Awards {22:51} The measurable outcome is the cornerstone of what drives the content of all data collection tools {28:22} Feedback, outputs, and outcomes are critical {30:46} What are some of the impact or logic models that are created to help with this process? {42:47} How do you know what to share or what not to share? Remarkable Quotes   Chari:  I'm passionate about helping people understand how to use and gather data, to help their organizations thrive. Chari:  I've been, fortunate to be able to share my excitement and knowledge with other people. Chari:  Program evaluation is a systematic process to understand what's working in your nonprofit program and what's not working. Chari:  There's a fear around job security and the fear of losing funding. Travis:  They're either in it to learn or they want to be right, and if they feel like they need to be right, it's almost like they're closed off to learning. Travis:  Thanks to that feedback, I was able to adjust what I was doing and make my show a little bit more inclusive. Chari Smith Bio   Chari Smith believes evaluation should be accessible, practical, and usable. She founded Evaluation into Action to help nonprofit professionals create realistic and meaningful program evaluation processes. She has taught several workshops helping nonprofit professionals understand the value and use of program evaluation. Recently, she was the opening keynote speaker at the American Evaluation Association Conference. Her book “Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple: Get Your Data. Show Your Impact. Improve Your Programs.” provides step-by-step instructions on how to do program evaluation. Learn more at: www.evaluationintoaction.com/book. Connect with Chari Smith   Website: www.evaluationintoaction.com Email: [email protected] Twitter: www.twitter.com/charismith LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chari-smith-636b982 Nonprofit Architect Podcast Links   Website http://nonprofitarchitect.org   Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/NonprofitArchitect   Ultimate Podcast Guide https://nonprofitarchitect.org/ultimate-podcast-guide/   Subscribe and leave a Review https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nonprofit-architect-podcast/id1481292481   Patreon https://www.patreon.com/NonprofitArchitect   Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQm8fnR2sHyrmLpV2jKYajA   Listen to these other great podcasts from Veterans https://nonprofitarchitect.org/veteran-podcast-network/   Want help getting your podcast started? Visit: https://nonprofitarchitect.org/podcast-production-services/