Thinking About Nonprofit Evaluation as Affected by Time
Submitted by Steve on September 4, 2013
From Paul T. Hogan, writing for Nonprofit Quarterly:
Two critical factors seriously limit our ability to measure “impact and outcomes.” One is time. Change takes a very long time to achieve, especially in the behavior of humans, and measuring what happens to people within a 12- or 24-month period based on an intermittent (at best) intervention is not likely to reflect true or lasting change.
The other is outside influence — how many other things going on in the lives of the targeted populations are likely to influence the outcome of an intervention? If an organization is doing an afterschool nutrition program for kids, and at the same time, the school is doing a major push toward good food in the cafeterias, how is that accounted for in the measurement of the program? Or a physical activity program offered by an organization during football season, when the NFL is heavily promoting its Play60 program on television? Or a poet in a classroom during National Poetry Month, as opposed to other times?