Outcomes and Impact Assessment Primer for Nonprofits

[David Wolcheck]

You may have caught it last month, but in case you didn't, the latest issue of NTEN:Change includes a primer on impact assessment specifically for nonprofits penned by Julie Macalik. In it, she calls on organizations to look beyond outputs and examine outcomes so that they can begin to speak to the broader effects of their activities and tell their stories in more meaningful ways. The article also outlines a few practical aspects of evaluation in regard to organizational capacity. Macalik provides a broad overview of the necessary steps to planning strategically, setting goals, and examining results so that nonprofits can turn to focusing beyond outputs, to outcomes and impact. The piece also includes a brief example case study and links to resources related to setting goals and understanding the requisite terms.

An excerpt is available at Amy Sample Ward's blog, and the full article can be found in the December 2011 issue of NTEN:Change (available free if you register with NTEN).

The TRASI database currently contains 141 resources applicable to nonprofit and NGO assessment needs. Below are some helpful guidelines to get you started with examining outcomes and assessing your social impact:

• Developing a Theory of Change
• Evaluating the Impact of Development Projects on Poverty: A Handboo...
• Framework for Program Evaluation
• Performance Information that Really Performs
• Project Level Evaluation: Context Evaluation, Implementation Evaluation, and Outcome Evaluation
• Social Impact Assessment

To explore other resources for nonprofits and NGOs, including specific tools and methologies, check out this list or narrow the results by searching the TRASI database.

[Nina Gantcheva]

Thanks for culling those guides for us, David. Really helpful resources! The NTEN article includes some useful links as well, including this one outlining the distinction between outputs and outcomes. (For a closer look at terminology, another page to check out is TRASI’s Terms Defined.)