Evaluation and Evaluative Rigor in the Nonprofit Sector

• Author: David Berlan,George E. Mitchell
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21236
• Date: 01 December 2016
• Published date: 01 December 2016

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N M  L, vol. 27, no. 2, Winter 2016 © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/nml.21236

Journal sponsored by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Correspondence to: George E. Mitchell, City College of New York, Colin Powell School, 160 Convent Avenue NAC

4/135, New York, NY 10031. E-mail: gmitchell@ccny.cuny.edu.

Research Notes

Evaluation and Evaluative Rigor

in the Nonprofi t Sector

George E. Mitchell , 1 David Berlan 2

1 City College of New York , 2 Florida State University

Nonprofit organizations are under more pressure than ever to provide “rigorous” evidence

of program impact. However, as expectations for rigorous evidence rise, many nonprofits

struggle with challenges that inhibit evaluation. Recognizing these trends and tensions, this

study identifies catalysts and obstacles to evaluation activity and the correlates of evaluative

rigor among US nonprofits based on a national survey of registered public charities ( n =

311). Results reveal that the most important catalysts to evaluation include the desire to

improve program effectiveness and legitimacy, while the most important obstacles include

insufficient time and money. Moreover, regression analysis finds that evaluation appears to

be most rigorous when (1) evaluation is a priority, (2) a supportive organizational culture

exists, (3) management requires evaluation, (4) evaluation is not primarily motivated

by personal interest, and (5) evaluation is likely to reveal success. Overall, intrinsically

motivated evaluation appears to be more rigorous than externally mandated evaluation,

suggesting that stakeholders should work to help capacitate receptive nonprofits to improve

evaluative rigor instead of imposing external requirements.

Keywords: evaluation , evaluative rigor , national survey , United States , nonprofit

organizations

IN 2013, THE UNITED STATES was home to 293,103 reporting public charities. During

the ten-year period between 2003 and 2013, the combined revenues of these organizations

grew 40.6 percent to USD $1.73 trillion while assets grew 45.3 percent to USD 3.22 trillion

( McKeever 2015 ). The size and growth of the sector has generated increased interest in evaluat-

ing the impact of nonprofits’ programs (Mitchell 2013 ; O ’ Flanagan, Harold, & Brest 2008 ) and

 is research was supported by the Masters of Public Administration program of the Colin Powell School of the City College of New York

and the Askew School of Florida State University.

 e authors thank Ruowen Shen, Naon Min, and Chip Heartfi eld for their research assistance, and several anonymous reviewers for their

helpful feedback.