Enhancing Organizational Capacity for Program Evaluation : The Case of the Neighbourhood Small Grants Program [article]

Diana Carolina Camargo Camargo
2015
Program evaluation offers opportunities to build organizational capacity and improve a program's outcomes. Also, it directs stakeholders' attention to the most important components of a program. Program evaluation is particularly useful for programs that are continuously adjusted because it provides an evidence base for decision-making. This is the case for Vancouver Foundation's grassroots grant-making program, Neighbourhood Small Grants (NSG). Over the years, the evaluation of the NSG program
more » ... has been very useful for finding "better ways to meet the needs of people, to be relevant, to be accessible. It [evaluation] is a perpetual evolution of trying to do it better". Vancouver Foundation, in collaboration with the program's stakeholders, designed a set of online evaluation surveys that have supplied valuable information over the years. However, the excessive length of these surveys presents a challenge for survey respondents and Vancouver Foundation's staff. Additionally, a lack of distinction in the dimensions of some NSG goals could affect the evaluation process.
doi:10.14288/1.0305852 fatcat:vdf5b4nk2rgg5ozcg5p45yjef4