Information Gold Mine

PAUL W. MATTESSICH, PhD, is executive director of Wilder Research at Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, which dedicates itself to improving the lives of individuals, families, and communities through applied research. Wilder Research has a staff of approximately seventy-five people, including evaluation researchers, survey interviews, data analysts, administrative support staff, and others. Paul has been involved in applied social research since 1973, working with local national, and international organizations. He has authored or coauthored more than two hundred publications and reports, including the second edition of the popular book Collaboration: What Makes It Work and The Manager's Guide to Program Evaluation: Planning, Contracting, and Managing for Useful Results. He received his PhD in sociology from the University of Minnesota.

Don't Shelve that Evaluation! Use the Findings More Creatively and EffectivelyTraditional use of evaluation-for improving service quality?is well known. But are you using the data to full advantage? Information Gold Mine highlights 14 nonprofits that have used program evaluation in exciting, creative ways. You'll find five examples of using evaluation for improving services, five examples of influencing policy, and four examples of marketing a program. Written for non-technicians?service delivery practitioners, program designers, and managers?Information Gold Mine provides real examples and contains the ideas, suggestions, and actual words of your nonprofit colleagues. These are people who understand the realities of work in nonprofit and government service delivery organizations.You'll learn about specific changes organizations made based on evaluation findings; barriers they faced and how they overcame them; and practical advice including their most important learning and what would they have done differently. Plus, you'll find 15 key questions the authors advise you to answer if you want to improve services, 10 questions to answer if you want to influence policy and legislation, and 7 questions for marketing a program.Service providers have only scratched the surface when it comes to using evaluation information as a tool for public relations, educating consumers, influencing policy, and boosting staff morale. Information Gold Mine was written with the hope that the stories of these nonprofit will inspire more organizations to use program evaluation, as well as other forms of applied research, to accomplish tasks that will increase their strength and their impacts.