Program Evaluation: Accountability
*Note: These contents are assembled from several web sites, some of whom are now defunct. Although I have the documents in my records, I've provided the current links to available items. Copies of material from defunct sites, as well as my works, are provided below. Copyright belongs to the authors and/or publishers of the material according to the information contained in the documents. An internet search of the titles or of content from the material should be made for referencing purposes. The owner of this web site only claims authorship where indicated within the material.
Accountability, Monitoring & Evaluation and Tailor-Made Monitoring 2008 — This guidebook simply explains the tailor-made monitoring system and hopefully provides food for thought to actors that are involved in issues related to NGOs, donors, accountability, monitoring and evaluation.
Accountability.org: Online Disclosures by U.S. Nonprofits 2014 — Accountability is a multidimensional concept that includes reporting information, enabling stakeholder participation, evaluating performance (both internally and externally), and responding to stakeholder concerns
Accountability & Transparency An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Web and Print Resources 2011 — this bibliography brings together relevant resources that summarize the current thinking around accountability and transparency as it relates to charities and in particular to small and medium‐sized charities. The bibliography identifies existing web and print resources that provide information on these topics in the context of non‐profits and small and mid‐sized charitable organizations and identifies key Canadian and other resources.
Accountability in Human Services 2013 — Accountability has always been a central component of human services; the great responsibilities placed on human service agencies and the extent of public investment in their programs demand careful accounting and a clear link between the resources employed and the results of our work.
Accountability of Australian Nonprofit Organisations: Reporting Dilemmas 2003 — As the boundaries between the nonprofit sector, the government and the for-profit sector become blurred, the nonprofit sector is being subjected to pressures to conform to the accountability practices of the other two sectors. The response of nonprofit organisations to these pressures may mean that the sector is in danger of losing some of the attributes that have long been asserted as the special contributions that nonprofit organisations can make to both the delivery of public goods and to a more inclusive and participatory civil society.
Accountability or Outcome Measures for Non-Government Community Services 2010 by Duncan Blackman — Literature survey
Accounting for Results: Collaborative Capacity and Outcomes in the Human Services 2003 — This paper clarifies the implicit theory behind these initiatives by identifying mechanisms in the literature on public administration that suggest how results-based accountability initiatives may contribute to improvements in results. It then examines the relevance of those mechanisms to current efforts to hold local collaboratives of human services agencies accountable for improving measurable indicators of the well-being of their clients.
BetterEvaluation website — An international collaboration to improve evaluation practice and theory by sharing and generating information about options (methods or processes) and approaches.
Building Capacity for Better Results: Strategies for Financing and Sustaining the Organizational Capacity of Youth-Serving Programs 2010 — Successful youth nonprofit organizations have strong organizational capacity to help them achieve their goals for children and youth. This capacity includes sound financial and accounting systems and processes, sufficient professional development opportunities for staff, and a strong data and evaluation system.
Building Capacity in Nonprofit Organizations 2001 — we define capacity building as the ability of nonprofit organizations to fulfill their missions in an effective manner. We already know that many nonprofit organizations are small and possess limited resources, particularly when measured against the challenges and critical issues that they address.
Citizens’ Budget Reports: Improving Performance and Accountability in Government 2002 — For governments to succeed in this environment they’ll have to rapidly adopt strategic planning, performance measurement, and citizen-education tenets—and the time to do this is now. This guide will help not only to show the value and importance of strategic planning and performance measurement, but also to assist policymakers in developing their own initiatives.
Collaborative Capacity in Public Service Delivery: Towards a Framework for Practice 2015 — This discussion paper refl ects primarily on the public service reform agenda in the UK, drawing lessons from a range of British examples to form the basis of a delivery framework that can be discussed, adapted and applied internationally. It starts with a conviction that public services at their best are the cornerstone of society.
Holding Non-Profits Accountable: Frameworks that Distinguish between Looking Good and Doing Good 2011 — The purpose of this paper is to explore questions regarding what charitable organizations should be held accountable for, to whom they should be held accountable, and, perhaps most importantly, how they should be held accountable.
Improving the Quality of Public Services: A Multinational Conference on Public Management 2011 — In June 2011, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, in association with Moscow’s National Research University—Higher School of Economics, and the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, held an international research conference in Moscow on “Improving the Quality of Public Services and Public Management.” Conference papers are available at http://www.umdcipe.org/conferences/Moscow/papers/
Key Steps in Outcome Management | Urban Institute 2003 — Nonprofits are increasingly asked to provide evidence that their programs help clients. Even without such pressure, they should operate and manage their resources in a way that is most effective for clients. Regularly collected feedback on service outcomes can help provide the needed evidence on impacts and create learning organizations that constantly improve their services.
Managing Ethical Dilemmas in Non-Profit Organizations 2007 — In dealing with ethical issues, non-profit managers are often faced with dilemmas that defy a simple choice between right and wrong. When there is no obvious way of prioritizing responsibility, and no precedent to emulate, resolution of such dilemmas demands careful consideration of stakeholder expectations when looking at the ethical options, so that decisions satisfy not only the immediate problem but also align with the organization’s mission, values and ethical code.
MEASURABLE ACCOUNTABILITY: DEVELOPING OUTCOME MEASUREMENT IN NONPROFITS THROUGH COLLABORATIVE CAPACITY BUILDING 2013 — This paper examines the extent to which outcome measurements support the accountability of nonprofits and funders, and how this accountability can be improved through collaborative capacity building.
Modernizing Government Accountability: A Framework for Reform 2005 — This research report explains the fundamentals and mechanisms of accountability in government, as well as hierarchies, relationships, and instruments of effective accountability.
NGO self-regulation: enforcing and balancing accountability 2005 — Increasing visibility and increasing criticism, among other factors, have led to growing pressure on NGOs to be more accountable, both from within and outside of the sector. One increasingly prominent means of doing so is self-regulation, but without means of enforcement how effective is this?
Some obstacles to measuring results 2000 — There are many ways to define a result, and the decision of which one to use is important, because in the same way that the definition of a problem determines to a large extent its solution, the choice of how results are measured will affect the result itself.
THE CASE FOR SHIFTING TO RESULTS-BASED ACCOUNTABILITY with A Start-Up List of Outcome Measures with Annotations 1994 — This paper sets out some of the issues in the shift to results-based accountability, and identifies a start-up list of outcome measures with annotations on their use. The authors see results-based accountability as an essential part of a larger strategy to improve outcomes for children.
The Development of a Concept Map for Understanding Spiritual Integration in Evangelically Based Social Service Organizations 2015 — This research presents a conceptualization of spiritual integration and identifies the constituent domains. Findings may help focus programmatic and research efforts, leading to the development of measures that open the field for further research and theory generation.
The Devil is in the Details: Implementing Outcome Measurement in Faith-Based Organizations 2003 — This paper discusses how the design and implementation of outcomes measurement approaches can be effectively adapted to faith-based organizations and their programs. Drawing on the United Way logic model framework and other work, the paper attempts to address the practical issues surrounding the development of measures and methods.
The Nonprofit Taxonomy of Outcomes: Creating a Common Language for the Sector 2006 — The Urban Institute and the Center for What Works have created a draft taxonomy of nonprofit outcomes to provide a resource of candidate quality indicators and assist nonprofits in developing outcome indicators and collecting outcome data.
The Urban Institute Series on Outcome Management for Nonprofit Organizations 2009 — The series includes: - Key Steps in Outcome Management - Finding Out What Happened to Former Clients - Surveying Clients about Outcomes - Analyzing Outcome Information - Developing Community-wide Outcome Indicators for Specific Services - Using Outcome Information
UNINTELLIGENT ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE KILLING OFF OF OPTIMISM 2008 — Fundamental questions do still need to be asked about how government measures policy success and policy failure: for what and for whose purposes?