What is this study about?

Study Title: Balancing Accountability and Organizational Learning in Program Evaluation

You are invited to participate in a research study exploring different accountability obligations and the likelihood that public and nonprofit organizations can use program evaluation results to learn and improve. 

Who is eligible to participate?

In order to participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years old and work for a nonprofit or government agency in the United States. This includes educational institutions. You also must have participated in at least one program evaluation between 2021 and 2023. Program evaluations are projects that collect and analyze data about a program or service to evaluate its effectiveness and make decisions to improve or discontinue it. They are a common aspect of grant contracts. 

Your participation in this study is voluntary.

What do I have to do? How long will it take?

Phase 1 of this study involves a 7-minute survey. You will answer questions about different accountability obligations you encounter at work, such as grant reporting, professional ethics standards, and community responsiveness. You will also answer questions about the most recent program evaluation in which you participated. 

A small number of interested survey participants will be invited to participate in Phase 2 , which involves a confidential one-on-one interview with the researcher via Zoom. Participation is optional. The interview should last about an hour and will include questions about accountability obligations (e.g., grant funder relationships, professional standards, community responsiveness) and your experiences conducting program evaluations.

Are there any risks to participating?

You might face some risks from being in this study. One potential risk is the time spent taking the survey, which could be spent on other tasks. To best honor your time, we limited the survey length to include only the most important questions.

Another possible risk is that your data privacy could be compromised. To protect your data privacy, only the researcher will have access to the survey and interview data. The survey software is password-protected, and all data files are stored securely on the researcher's password-protected laptop or in the university's secure file storage system (OneDrive), which requires double-factor authentication. The survey and interview protocol will not ask sensitive questions, so even if there were a data breach, the research content itself does not pose a greater risk than what you might encounter in daily life. Furthermore, participants are not required to answer any question that makes them uncomfortable. No identifying information will be shared in any final research reports or presentations. Your record for the study may, however, be reviewed by a member of the research team, the Institutional Review Board, or the federal Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP), and to that extent, confidentiality is not absolute.

Are there any benefits?

As a thank you, everyone who completes the survey can receive a free eBook about building a learning culture to support organizational growth and improvement. This eBook will be available for download on the final website page after survey submission.

Although you may not otherwise directly benefit from being in this study, others across the nonprofit and public administration field as a whole might benefit because the research results have the potential to develop best practices for promoting data-informed decision-making and continuous improvement. This further benefits the clients and communities served by these organizations.

Will my answers be private?

Survey participants: The data collected in this survey are completely confidential. Your individual responses will not be shared with anyone besides the researcher. Participation is voluntary. You can skip any questions you do not feel comfortable answering or stop taking the survey at any time without penalty. 

At the end of the survey, you have the opportunity to sign up for the interview stage of this study. The contact information provided will only be used for scheduling purposes and will not be shared with any third parties. Please still complete the survey even if you do not want to participate in the interview phase. 

Interviewees only: Interview conversations will be video-recorded and transcribed to help with data analysis. If desired, you may use a Zoom pseudonym to protect your identity. Once the interview has been transcribed, pseudonyms will be assigned (if not already done so), and all personally identifying information will be removed from the transcripts. The video recordings and interview transcriptions will not be shared with anyone besides the researcher. They are merely for the purpose of analyzing the data. While individual quotes may be shared in research reports and presentations, care will be taken to ensure these are not identifiable. Your privacy is very important to us!

Who can I contact for additional information?

If you have questions about this research, you may contact the primary researcher, Michelle Borckardt, at michelle.borckardt@cuw.edu or (469) 863-2504. You may also contact her faculty advisor, Dr. Angela Walmsley, at angela.walmsley@cuw.edu. 

If you have any questions or concerns about the way you were treated as a participant in this study, please contact Dr. Stacy Stolzman, Chair of the Concordia University Institutional Review Board, at 262-243-2176, stacy.stolzman@cuw.edu. Even though Dr. Stolzman may ask for your name, information will be kept confidential.