3 Common Program Evaluation Mistakes
Program evaluation is an essential nonprofit activity and competency. Good program evaluation helps nonprofits improve their work, better serve their clients, tell a compelling story of impact, and build support. However, it’s hard to prioritize program evaluation when there is so much to do to just make a program happen. Here are three common program evaluation mistakes I see all the time. 
 
Doing it for the grant 
Grant support is vital for nonprofits. At the same time, nonprofits know that they must guard against “mission creep” - doing programs that you might not if you weren’t receiving funding. Mission creep is a product of a reactive culture. Being reactive helps you in the short term, but hurts you in the long term. Likewise, I often see what I’ll call “evaluation creep” - doing evaluation only because the funder requires it. Evaluation creep hurts nonprofits. When we feel like we are doing evaluation only because it’s required, we view evaluation as a waste of time and resources. Being proactive with evaluation has huge benefits for nonprofits. When you identify the questions, goals, and outcomes that you care about, your evaluation strategy is meaningful and valuable to you. 
 
Starting with the survey
Surveys are the evaluation tool most commonly used by nonprofits. Too often, I see nonprofits try to write surveys without a clear understanding of what the survey should be investigating. They haven’t done the initial proactive work of identifying the program’s goals or outcomes. Without a plan for what the survey should be investigating, writing the survey is difficult for the organization, and the end result is poor. Poor surveys are frustrating for survey takers and produce low value data that isn’t used by the organization. Much better to start with an evaluation plan. The more time you spend planning your evaluation, the easier it is to write the survey (or interview or focus group) and use the results. 
 
Forgetting to learn
Evaluation is wasted if it’s not used. Often, a lot of work goes into evaluating a program—writing surveys, collecting responses, analyzing data, reporting results—and the result is a PDF attachment to a grantor. That’s one way to use the results of the evaluation, but an easy opportunity has been missed. An organization can learn so much by simply getting together, reviewing the results of the evaluation, and discussing, “What can we learn from this?” “Where could we use these results?” and “What are some new questions we have because of this data?” Spending time together interpreting the results and identifying next steps makes any evaluation, proactive or reactive, meaningful to the organization. 

If you’re part of a 501©(3) nonprofit, you can rest assured that your organization has to file some form of the IRS form 990 every year.  And if you’re not in the accounting/financial division of your organization, you may think that the 990 holds no great interest for anyone but the IRS.

You’d be wrong.  Lots of people look at your 990 every year.  Most of them are deciding what kind of an investment you might be.  Giving to charity involves a lot of comparison shopping—and serious financial analysis.  Does your organization put its money where its mission is? 

Sure, there are other ways to decide.  GuideStar (now Candid), Charity Navigator, and other websites can help the average funder or donor make decisions. But all of those sites use the 990 as a starting point.

What’s the scariest line in a 990?  It might be line 25 in Part IX.  This line totals four columns:  Total expenses, Program services, Management and general, and Fundraising.

This line can tell the savvy investor whether your nonprofit spends its money wisely.  If the sum of the last two columns (M&G and Fundraising) is a larger percentage of your total expenses than the second column (Program) is, that can be a very bad sign. 

Those last two columns are the scary word OVERHEAD. If you are spending more towards Overhead than toward program, then your organization’s mission may suffer.  Experts differ in what might be the best percentage, but the larger the overhead percentage, the more your donors might be scared off.

How do you make your 990 less scary? Join Dave and The Center as we go over many ways to do this in the upcoming workshop, Using the 990 to Tell Your Nonprofit’s Story on June 12, 2019.  Don’t be afraid- no accounting necessary!
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Dave Holmes is the Cleveland Lead at Foundation Center Midwest, coordinating the training, reference, and research services for the Midwest region. He returned to the Foundation Center in 2015 from a position as Senior Consultant at Grants Plus, writing grants and doing research for a variety of large and small nonprofit clients.

Without the right tools and resources, you won’t be able to raise much more money than you’re raising right now – let alone all the money you’ll need to have a successful capital campaign.
 
3 Must-Have Tools to Lead a Successful Campaign
 
If you want to lead a successful capital campaign, here are three tools you shouldn’t proceed without.
 
1. Gift Range Chart
The gift range chart tells you exactly how many gifts and of what size you need to achieve your goal.
 
As a general guide, your first gift should be approximately 20% of your campaign goal. That lead gift would also be the amount reflected in a donor recognition plan to name a building, for example.
 
It’s important to note, the first 10 to 20 gifts should get you halfway (or more) to your goal.  
 
Capital campaigns often follow the 80/20 rule, which is when 20% of your donors give 80% or more of the dollars. This generally equates to the first ten plus donors getting you past the halfway mark to your goal.

Yet, while the gift range chart you generate may look great on paper, the next tool is where the rubber really meets the road.
 
2. Depth Chart
The depth chart works hand-in-hand with the gift range chart and matches individual gift amounts with specific potential donors. If you can identify multiple, specific donors for each gift you need on the gift range chart, you are likely to lead a successful campaign.
 
For example, let’s say you need a lead gift of $500,000.  The depth chart is where you would list two or three people you think CAN and MIGHT give your campaign half a million dollars.
 
In other words, these are not “wishful thinking” names, like Oprah or Bill Gates. They are names of people who live in your community and support your work (even at a much lower level).

​3. Campaign Policies
Campaign policies may not seem like a traditional tool, but they certainly help guide your campaign and make your life easier, so they are most definitely an important tool.
 
You campaign policies should specifically state things like:

• Exact dates when you will start and stop counting gifts to the campaign
• What types of gifts will be counted and how they are counted
• How and when donors will be recognized

 
When developing your own campaign policies, ask yourself the following questions:

• What will be the standard pledge period for the campaign?
• How will you establish the value of gifts that are made to the campaign? (Consider valuation of real estate and personal property, in-kind gifts, bequests, life insurance and other gifts.)
• Who will be responsible for making sure there are responsible practices for record keeping, billing and accounting for campaign gifts?

Are you ready to run a successful Capital Campaign? Join us on May 22, 2019 when Amy presents Capital Campaigns: 10 Critical Tools for Success.

Amy Eisenstein, ACFRE, is a consultant, author, speaker, and the creator of online fundraising resources including Mastering Major Gifts and the Capital Campaign Toolkit.

Your nonprofit has a healthy balance sheet and has ended every year in the black.  You continue to have success recruiting highly skilled staff and board members who add value to the organization.  You deliver proven outcomes with an evidenced-based approach.  Donor retention rates are high. Philanthropic and government funders often cite your programs as among the best in your city. 

What’s not to like in this picture?

For many nonprofits the truth is that while you’re doing well, your constituents aren’t.  Pick the indicator.  Whether it’s hunger, domestic violence, education outcomes, individual health, infant mortality, or neighborhood violence, in many communities these indicators are headed in the wrong direction.  Needs are growing and you have plateaued in revenue, in numbers served, and in outcomes.  It’s clear that you aren’t fully achieving your mission.  Needs in your community are outpacing your ability to meet those needs.

It’s time for some candid conversations. But where to begin? Consider the generative conversations you can have with your staff and board members.

• How are needs changing and how are we adapting?
• What are the trends in our operating environment that are impacting our ability to do more?
• What is holding us back from being able to more fully address community needs?
• How are others in our community responding to these same issues? 

​It’s out of these conversations that the next question often becomes – who else can we work with in our community and how can we work with them to leapfrog to a new level of service and program delivery? How can we more comprehensively address complex community issues?

It may be forming a coalition to change policies that disadvantage your constituents.  It may be an arrangement to share back office services to create greater efficiency in operations.  It may be designing and implementing an innovative new program with a like-minded partner.  It may be merging with an organization that allows you to provide services and programs that are more comprehensive, have more depth, and/or create a more holistic service continuum. 
​
Smart nonprofit leaders are increasingly turning to collaboration, alliances, and strategic restructurings to fuel organizational growth, remove barriers, and create greater efficiency. 

A couple years ago, the digital library JSTOR hosted a report on a longitudinal study of student writing over the past 100 years.  The authors of the study assumed that as short communications through email and texting became more common, students would begin to write the same way—in staccato bursts, ignoring punctuation, and with fewer words.

The authors found this not to be the case:  student papers are longer: averaging over 1,000 words, compared with 162 words in 1917.  The authors conclude that students have gotten more verbose-  because computers now make writing, editing, and researching so much easier.

What does this tendency mean when it comes to grant proposals?  More and more grantmakers seem to want less and less—fewer words, shorter requests, and more streamlined arguments.  Anyone who has completed an online grant application knows that word and character limits can be the bane of one’s existence.  Cut fifty words?  Communicate the need in 100 characters? How can I do that?

Well, here’s a few tips, tersely told:

• Do an outline:  Your English teacher was right.  Use bullet points and short phrases and stick to it.
• Summarize the paragraphs:  When editing, ask yourself:  what does this paragraph say? If it says much more than your summary, use the summary instead. 
• Get another set of eyes:  Don’t choose someone who worships your writing—choose someone who’s in a hurry. Someone who can tell you when sentences you love don’t help your case.
• Set yourself limits:  Tell yourself you will cut 50 words from every bit of writing, even when you don’t have to. It makes you a better editor for the next one.

If you want to learn (and practice) your foundation proposal writing skills, come to The Center's course with Dave, Grant Writing 101, on March 5, 2019. 

Dave Holmes is the Cleveland Lead at Foundation Center Midwest, coordinating the training, reference, and research services for the Midwest region. He returned to the Foundation Center in 2015 from a position as Senior Consultant at Grants Plus, writing grants and doing research for a variety of large and small nonprofit clients.

If an organization has a culture of healthy conflict resolution practices, there will be higher levels of trust, employee engagement, creativity, innovation, employee retention- and change will be seen as a good thing.  Without healthy conflict resolution practices, there can be a big cost for organizations including a culture of stress, distrust, low creativity, the lack of innovation, low morale and unnecessary staff turnovers.
 
Conflict within an organization is inevitable.   When conflict happens, the tendency is to assign blame and do everything to make it go away.  Conflict can be a positive catalyst for growth and transformation if we have the tools and the will to embrace it.   

If an organization is to take conflict management, conflict resolution and conflict transformation seriously, it is imperative that there is an educational component whereby each employee- from top to bottom- is trained, retrained and understands their own conflict management style.  

Healthy conflict resolution tools empower organizations, their employees and volunteers to define conflict from their perspective and helps them hear and understand issues from other perspectives.  We all want and need to be heard and understood.  When that happens, we are more willing to engage others and begin to imagine new possibilities. 

Organizations and employees that have a culture of healthy conflict resolution know how to focus on the importance of an alignment of purpose.  The task and trick of successful conflict resolution and transformation is when we can transition from the emotional state of feeling hurt, being ignored, angry or disrespected to focusing on the organizational vision, purpose and goals.  That is not to say that emotions are not important, but we must learn to focus on our mutual or shared vision and purpose for being who we are and doing what we do.       
​
It isn’t easy to let go of personal agendas, de-escalate emotions and at the same time elevate rational problem solving.  Nonetheless- if organizations want to cultivate a culture of conflict transformation and growth, it is imperative we know our conflict management style, practice healthy communication, active listening, focus on mutual interests, organizational values, and long range goals.   

You can help minimize the cost of conflict in your organization and help generate the benefits of healthy conflict.

Allen Rutter has been a mediator and conflict resolution trainer since 2006 and is the executive director at Shalom Counseling and Mediation Center located in Archbold, OH and Bryan, OH.

​Are you in need of practical ways to ease conflict in your everyday work life? The upcoming C4NPR workshop, Conflict Resolution Tools for the Nonprofit Workplace, will give you an opportunity to accurately discover how you respond to conflict and what your  conflict management style is.  Join us on February 7, 2019 to discover new ways to effectively manage conflict in your nonprofit.  Learn More

We are excited to announce the C4NPR 2019 Programming schedule- it feels like Christmas releasing this to you!  In this short video, Associate Director Lexi Haas provides an overview of the professional development opportunities available in 2019.  Click here to download the schedule one-pager - full course catalog coming soon.

​Questions about professional 
development opportunities?
Our Associate Director, Lexi Haas, can help you determine the best options available through The Center to reach your professional development goals.  Email Lexi or call (419) 241-9513.

When organizations can figure out what needs to happen to foster innovation it can be a game changer.  Greater impact.  Attention and rewards from investors.  A more inclusive, collaborative workplace.

​In this short video, our subject matter expert Patricia Moten Marshall helps us understand what innovation is (and is not) as well as identifying the factors that influence whether innovation increases or decreases.

​Our colleague was awarded the Certificate in  Nonprofit Management.  ​Please join us in congratulating Dorothy on her accomplishment.  

​Welcome  to the C4NPR alumni community!

Dorothy Mockensturm
Good Grief of Northwest Ohio

​Our colleague was awarded the Certificate in  Nonprofit Management.  ​Please join us in congratulating Anna on her accomplishment.  

​Welcome  to the C4NPR alumni community!

Anna Toney
​Leadership Toledo

We added three new on-demand training videos to the Nonprofit 101 Fundamental series.to help you in the area of grants.  This collection will give you a great knowledge base on this topic.

• ​​An Introduction to Grant Writing
• Before You Seek a Grant:  A Checklist for New Nonprofits
• Introduction to Finding Grants
• Introduction to Proposal Writing

​The Center is offering a workshop Creating a Grant-Ready Budget on September 5, 2018.  Click here for more details.

​Imagine you are in a car. Your vehicle is – unsurprisingly – on the right hand side of the road. Suddenly, you see an oncoming vehicle in your lane. In the wrong lane! Your mind is racing, what should you do? Feelings of fear, anger, and your survival instinct cause you to change lanes. As you cross paths, you lay on the horn to demonstrate your disgust with the other driver. They do the same. Neither driver stops to ask of the other why they were on that side of the road, no one questions if they may have been on the wrong side. You both drive on.

Now, what if I told you the other driver was from Mauritius, where the ‘right side’ of the road is the left. If you had just stopped to ask why they were driving as they were, you would have quickly learned that, and been able to help them learn the rules of ‘our roads’. Alternatively, what if I told you that you were driving in Mauritius and therefore, you were in the wrong lane. If the oncoming driver had stopped to talk to you, you would have quickly adjusted.

Our cultural identity, much like the road rules, paves a logical path for people within a community to follow. In context, and absent of other cultures, you can travel easily along life’s path. However, in our increasingly globalized world, different paths cross more and more often. These interactions are, like in the story, inevitable. The question is if you will be prepared to stop and learn something from them, or as in the case of our imaginary drivers, just drive on. 

The first step in learning about cross-cultural communications is to learn about yourself and your culture. Only then can you accurately identify that which is different. Only then will you know if you are driving in the US or Mauritius.

The second step is to learn how to communicate about your culture, and then ask, and learn about others. It is how to engage once you have stopped the car.

Finally, cross-cultural communications is a life-long journey. You have to keep driving and you will encounter different drivers in oncoming traffic. At each crossing, you have an opportunity to learn something new and further your cross-cultural communications journey.  

Think of our Cross Cultural Communications workshop offered by The Center like the driver’s education of cross-cultural communications. We will provide you with the tools to be a good driver on our globalized roads. With our tools and your practice, you will become a better driver. We encourage you to take the wheel and begin your cross-cultural communications journey today!

​Two of our colleagues were recognized for completing the Nonprofit Management certificate program.  ​Please join us in congratulating both of them on this accomplishment.  

​Welcome  to the C4NPR alumni community!

When friction is reduced between the Board of Directors and the Executive Director, nonprofits honor their mission and deepen the impact.

​Nonprofits produce their most effective work when leaders on the board, within the staff, and within the community are connected and communicating well.  Keeping these relationships fluid and open is important. This is easier said than done, however.

​Like those dinner parties when there are too many cooks in the kitchen all trying to craft their own menus, Boards and EDs may run into communication, structural, or relational barriers as they work to achieve the best for their nonprofit. If approached with intentionality, honesty, and interest in developing a collaborative relationship, EDs and Board Chairs can work together to align their structural processes and practices with their strategies and tactics to move the organization forward.

​The relationship between Board Chair and Executive Director is critically important for setting the tone of how the board and staff will work together to advance the nonprofit. Beginning with open conversations, consider discussing why each person is working and advocating for the organization, what work styles they prefer, and establish clear expectations of each other regarding communication and areas of leadership and responsibility. From deepening the relationship to revisiting board functions and structures, board chairs and ED’s can find ways to effectively communicate and thrive.

A major gift is different at every organization and to every donor.  My career in fundraising illustrates this point.I started my career in fundraising at the battered women’s shelter. We rarely received gifts over $1,000. Our first $10,000 gift was cause for major celebration! That was a MAJOR Gift. Any personal gift over $1,000 was a major gift there.
​
Rutgers University was my next stop. There a major gift was $25,000 or more. Just down the road was Princeton University where Major Gifts didn’t start until $100,000 or more. I’m certain it’s $1 million or more now.

If you’re at a small organization, just getting started with personal giving and major gifts is enough of a challenge. It would be ridiculous to hold you to the standards of Princeton University.

​Let’s set some parameters for determining the size of major gifts at your organization.

​There are three important reasons for knowing how much a major gift is at your organization.

1. Donor Recognition
Special Donors get special recognition. Setting the Major Gift amount focuses your recognition efforts.
Knowing what a major gift is determines who gets recognition on things like Donor Walls.

Major Donors get personal recognition, like calls from a board member and a handwritten note from the executive director.
It’s nice to think that every single donor to your organization will receive a personal call and a handwritten note, but sometimes that’s simply not practical or even possible. Knowing your major gift levels will help you determine who must get the royal treatment.
You’ll want to acknowledge all donors, of course, but your major donors should always get VIP treatment.

2. Time Management 
Setting a major gift size helps you manage your time.  If it makes sense to go meet with a donor to ask them for $1,000, then that’s a major gift at your organization.
If you’re thinking, “No way!” then how about $10,000?
It’s a matter of time management. I don’t know many development directors who wouldn’t make time to visit with a donor to ask for $10,000.

Leadership level gift managers spend their time focused on donors who could give $1M or more, but we’re not quite there yet.

3. Accountability
The third reason for setting a major gift size is for accountability and tracking metrics. If your major gift levels start at $10,000, then you will be able to easily track how many $10,000 plus gifts you received this year.

​Now that we know some benefits of setting a major gift size, let’s determine what works at your organization.

Remember, gifts don’t have to be over six figures to be considered major, and they aren’t only for capital campaigns. There’s no better way to skyrocket your annual fund than to infuse it with some major gift power.
​
This week’s action item will help you determine what constitutes a major gift at your organization.

Step 1: Run a list of your top donors.The simplest way to determine a major gift level is to run a list of your top 10 donors for the last 12 months. Exclude any foundations or corporations on the list. Let me say that again — you’ll want to eliminate any foundations or corporations from the list. (However, if you have donors who give from their family foundations without grant applications, it’s fine to include them.)

Also, exclude any extreme outliers or one-time gifts. In other words, if you received $100,000 from a bequest or in honor of someone, but it’s unlikely you’ll receive another gift of that level this year, don’t include it in your top 10.
Total up the donations from the top 10 donors (they may have given multiple times throughout the year – use their total giving in your calculation). Now divide by 10.

Step 2: Average your top 10.Take the average of the top ten donor’s totals from last year. Now round up to the nearest $5,000. If your average major gift level is $8,500, then round up to $10,000.

Remember, fundraising is an art and a science. In this case, there are no hard rules to determining what you consider a major gift at your organization.
​
Be realistic yet optimistic when picking an amount. Be optimistic, because you’re growing your major gift program and you don’t want to play it too safe or small. Consider where you want to be 3 years from now, not simply where you are today. However, if you’ve never received a gift of over $1,000, then $25,000 is probably too high. Start with a more realistic number like $5,000.

LuCynthia Jones
​Leading Families Home

​Our colleague was awarded the Certificate in  Nonprofit Management.  ​Please join us in congratulating Gary on his accomplishment.  

​Welcome  to the C4NPR alumni community!

Gary Wiegand
​DECA Health

Leadership skills aren't stagnant. Different generations moving in and out of the workforce dictate changes to the ways people lead.  If you're wondering what skills have come into play lately for the modern leader, click here for insights from 13 professional coaches of Forbes Coaches Council.

Program Brochure
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Click here to apply now!

The online application closes March 16 at 11:59 pm
​

In its entirety, the 101 Series provides an essential body of knowledge for nonprofit professionals who want to strengthen core competencies.  

​​Benefits:

• no-cost training
• on-demand 24/7
• great refresher for the seasoned nonprofit professional
• content supports six competency tracks in the Nonprofit Management Certificate program:
  • Board Governance
  • Financial Management
  • Fundraising
  • Leadership & Human Resources
  • Marketing & Media
  • Operational Management

Click here to start your training now.

We are excited to announce the C4NPR 2018 Programming schedule.  In this short video, Associate Director Toni Shoola provides an overview of the opportunities  Click here to download the schedule one-pager and/or the full course catalog.

Questions about professional 
development opportunities?
Our Associate Director, Toni Shoola, can help you determine the best options available through The Center to reach your professional development goals.  Email Toni or call 419-241-9513