Matching Evaluation Approaches to Expectations

In the nonprofit sector, evaluation is a word that gets used a lot. Different kinds of data gathering approaches with different purposes sometimes get lumped together under the general heading of evaluation. This can lead to miscommunication and unrealistic expectations. To try to clear things up a bit, we have created this resource

Making Evaluation Work in the Nonprofit Sector: A Call for Systemic Change

This position paper is a call for systemic changes that will create an ecosystem within which it is straightforward, efficient, and rewarding for nonprofits and funders to invest in evaluation work. It is also intended to further critical conversations to build a nonprofit sector that is more responsive, accountable, and focused on the best ways to support the communities in which they work

Exploring the Issues: An Evaluation Literature Review

Finding ways to make evaluation more meaningful and more useful has been a key theme in the evaluation literature since the discipline began, and there is no shortage of discussion around improving evaluation among nonprofit practitioners. The topic has been a highlight at ONN's annual conference in recent years.However, much of the discussion around improving evaluation focuses on methodology, tools, and indicators.There has been less attention paid to who is asking and determining the questions of evaluation, such as who evaluation is for and what is its purpose. Consequently, the purpose of this background paper is to review the literature on evaluation use with a particular focus on systemic factors. In other words, we are interested in looking at the relationship between evaluation practice and the overall structure and function of the nonprofit sector in Ontario.We're interested in the policies and regulations that guide us, the roles played by various actors, theassumptions we make, the language we use, and the ways in which resources move through the sector. We're examining the purposes that evaluation serves, both overt and implicit. We want to learn more about the factors that make evaluations really useful, the issues that can get in the way of evaluations being useful, and ideas for improvement. Ultimately, our goal in this paper is to generate a broad vision to inform our project's final outcomes

For the likes of us? Retelling the classed production of a British university campus

This paper contributes to recent critical geographical writing on university campuses by setting their physical production and reproduction centre stage and taking an historical perspective. Focusing on a single case study campus in the UK we revisit the archival record on its planning and early years, revealing gaps between stated intentions of increasing equality between social classes and discourses and practices which reinforced middle and upper class cultural hegemony. We then draw on oral history interviews with residents of the social housing estates immediately adjacent to the campus, including its former builders and cleaners, to explore the spatialized subjectivities of people who were generally absent from the consultations conducted by the university’s planners, and whose perspectives are not found in its official history. The findings confirm the idea of university campuses as paradoxical spaces for their working-class neighbours, at once excluding and, in unexpected ways, potentially transformational

Migrant Working in West Norfolk

During 2002 and 2003 there has been a rise in the number of migrant workers in West Norfolk. A number of agencies, including King's Lynn Borough Council became concerned about the possible implications of the new migration for community cohesion and also about the risks facing migrant workers due to multiple occupancy housing, inadequate access to health services, and illegal and exploitative employment relations. As a result Norfolk County Council commissioned the University of East Anglia to carry out an initial one month study to draw together information held by key agencies and individuals in the borough as a first step towards further action. This report details the findings of the study. It is made up of seven main sections covering the scale of migrant working in Norfolk, undocumented migration and illegal employment practices, housing, health, translation and language, crime, racism and community tension. The last section suggests ways forward including current and future support for migrant workers

Goodbye Reykjavik : international banking centres and the global financial crisis

This empirical paper analyses how leading international banking centres (IBCs) have been faring under the 2008 global financial crisis. We aggregate data derived from The Banker's annual list of the world's leading banks at the city level to map changing levels of Tier 1 capital between 2007 and 2008 and returns on capital in 2008. The results point to a general but nonetheless variegated shift 'from West to East' in the world of IBCs. The paper concludes with a brief review of the implications for future research on financial geographies in general and the geographies of the financial crisis in particular