- Learn
Participate in a workshop - Connect
Find funding, resources, network and more - Tools
What you need to know - Projects
Community Partnerships- Cal Endowment - Building Healthy Communities
- Encore Fellows Program
Civic Ventures program matching highly experienced professionals with nonprofit organizations in the Sacramento & Sierra regions - Generosity Project
- Placer Collaborative Network
- Strengthen Our Community
A leveraged media campaign to educate, connect and resource the community in support of the region’s nonprofit sector. - Website Development Project
- Previous Projects
- About the Center
Demonstrating Value
Using data to gauge impact
Demonstrating Value offers simple management solutions that enable you to use information and data more effectively to run your organization, plan for the future and show your value to the community. DV combines business performance monitoring with social impact evaluation in a compact and powerful communication tool. The tangible result of using Demonstrating Value is the Performance Snapshot: an interactive, at-a-glance report that efficiently communicates organizational impact.
California Cultural Data Project
The California Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal data on the sector.
Working Hard—and Working Well
A free, practical guide to performance manangement
Working Hard—and Working Well gives away David Hunter’s secret recipe for his renowned tough-love workshops that have sparked transformation for many of the country’s top nonprofit organizations. A sleeves-rolled-up companion to the 2011 book Leap of Reason, the book is a resolutely practical guide to developing the discipline and culture of performance management.
Getting Started With Data-Driven Decision Making
A Workbook
Could you use more help thinking through how to use data to help your organization make decisions? If so, you’re not alone. NTEN’s recent report on how nonprofits are using data showed that although some organizations are relying heavily on data, a number were doing very little to actually measure their work or use the data to inform other decisions.
Self Assessment and Evaluation of Outcomes
A collection of valuable resources from the National Council of Nonprofits
Outcomes Indicator Project
A joint project of the Urban Institute and The Center for What Works
The Outcome Indicators Project provides a framework for tracking nonprofit performance. It suggests candidate outcomes and outcome indicators to assist nonprofit organizations that seek to develop new outcome monitoring processes or improve their existing systems. This website provides:
Basic Guide to Program Evaluation
An excellent introduction to evaluation
Adapted from Carter McNamara’s Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation, this is an excellent introduction to evaluation.
The Center for What Works
Tools, training and resources for nonprofit evaluation
The Center for What Works and The Urban Institute recently completed the initial phase of a research project to provide the first sector-wide framework for nonprofit program outcomes and indicators for success.
Innovation Network
Free online evaluation tools and resources for nonprofits
The Logic Model
Resources to help you develop a Logic Model
The Logic Model is a versatile tool for planning and evaluating your programs. Here are some resources you can use to develop your own Logic Model.
Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact (TRASI)
150 approaches to measuring the impact of social programs
Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact (TRASI) is a searchable, expert-reviewed database of over 150 approaches to measuring the impact of social programs and investments.
Charting Impact
A tool for communicating with all your stakeholders
Charting Impact is a free web based tool developed to help your organization to be more effective.
PerformWell
Helping practitioners deliver more effective programs
PerformWell is a collaborative effort initiated by Urban Institute, Child Trends, and Social Solutions. PerformWell provides measurement tools and practical knowledge that human services professionals can use to manage their programs’ day-to-day performance.
Leap of Reason
Managing to outcomes in an era of scarcity
Leap of Reason, a collaboration between Venture Philanthropy Partners and its longtime strategic partner McKinsey & Company, presents a compelling case that we must rise to meet the difficult challenges of our times with management approaches that complement heart with head, passion with information.