Making data work for you

"Gretchen and her colleagues at Bee's Knees are a treasure that every nonprofit would be lucky to discover. There is no one better at presenting data – it’s a pleasure to share their reports with our funders and staff alike. Gretchen finds new ways to evaluate our programs to help us learn what we are doing right, and what we can improve. Sometimes she helps us gather additional information, and other times she shows us what we can cut out, so data collection does not get in the way of our services. She coordinates with external researchers to make sure that our organization’s and our members’ best interests are protected. As with any nonprofit, our data are the lifeblood of our organization. Each week, Bee's Knees helps us use data better." J.J. Bartlett, President, Fishing Partnership Support Services, Client (2016-2024)

Adding capacity through an evaluation advisory board

Could an evaluation advisory board add capacity and expertise to your nonprofit at low cost? Get tips from Gretchen and colleagues in our 2021 article, “Building evaluation capacity in youth-serving organizations through Evaluation Advisory Boards” published in the Journal of Youth Development here.

Storytelling

Read a blog post by Gretchen on storytelling resources and tips featured on the American Evaluation Association’s tip-a-day blog.

Leveraging public data and communicating findings

Check out City Year’s first whole-school outcomes study, which Gretchen led in collaboration with other City Year departments. Gretchen devised the strategy of using open data, helped to source and select the external research firm, shaped the study design, and contributed to multiple communication tools and resources that empowered City Year staff to share the findings externally with confidence.

Conducting external evaluations that build evidence and enhance learning

Here’s an example of an experimental, multi-method study we conducted in partnership with Marc Bolan Consulting of an innovative intervention to build organizational capacity for program evaluation and performance measurement among AmeriCorps partner sites. Not only do we offer evaluation capacity-building, we’ve studied it!