Traditional tools for evaluation and measurement fail to take into account the complexity of an interconnected and digitized world. Emerging techniques, such as developmental evaluation, improve on traditional linear, cause-and-effect models, while shared measurement increases the capacity of cross-sector collaboration. In this panel discussion, experts offer a case study-rich overview of three emerging tools: developmental evaluation, shared measurement, and big data. Kathy Brennan describes how developmental evaluation adopts a systems-learning approach absent from formative and summative designs, making it more favorable to evaluating complex, non-linear, and dynamic social realities. Patricia Bowie discusses the importance of shared measurement as a catalyst for collective learning. Researcher Lucy Bernholz warns that data collection offers as much peril as potential, and implores the nonprofit sector to think critically about how digital data is driving actions and whose voices it excludes. Presented in partnership with FSG, this panel discussion was part of the Next Generation Evaluation conference.
Kathy Brennan is the research and evaluation advisor for the AARP’s Experience Corps program. She has more than 15 years of experience managing and evaluating government, nonprofit, and foundation social welfare initiatives.Before joining AARP, Brennan worked at the Urban Institute, Goodwill Industries International, Innovation Network, and at Living Cities.
Patricia Bowie is an independent consultant, who for more than 10 years has helped Los Angeles-based organizations, community-based initiatives, and community groups develop new ways to improve their work while sustaining their viability and commitment to their missions. She believes that shared vision, shared measurement, and mutually reinforcing actions within communities and between organizations are the cornerstone of developing sustainable improvement over time.
Lucy Bernholz is a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and a fellow with the Hybrid Reality Institute. She writes extensively on philanthropy, technology, information, and policy on her award-winning blog, philanthropy2173.com, and is a frequent conference speaker and an oft-quoted media source for NPR, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.