Nonprofits are accountable to donors, foundations, charities, and those who provide revenue in order for the organization to live. Some who donate will not require an extensive explanation or evaluation but others will. It all depends on who the donor is because a foundation may require certain information and outcome in order for them to provide you the same funding next year. I think the best form of evaluation is speaking to the beneficiaries just like the article Listening to Those Who Matter Most, the Beneficiaries mentions. Most nonprofits do not give much importance to evaluations from those who use their services. But how will the organization be able to implement change or continue doing what it is doing if it does not know how the actual beneficiaries feel.

Nonprofits work for the public and therefore should listen to the public. If I use someone’s service I would be able to explain how I felt about their service and then the organization will be able to evaluate the next steps. I think  when evaluations should occur mid-way in the program or activity and then again at the end of the program or activity year. Sometimes it’s even important for the organization to gauge in pre-evaluation by giving people some type of test or survey in the beginning of their time in the organization. This way the organization can see how people improved or did not improve from the beginning to middle and then at the end. Yes, this requires a lot of human resources but measuring services is extremely hard. We can compare someone’s test scores or improvement in academics due to its numerical value, but how do we accurately measure whether an advocacy group or rural development organization was able to bring monumental changes? This is why evaluations are necessary. The TED Talk video discusses how nonprofits spend little to no money on evaluations. These are organizations we trust to alleviate or change something in our life. Private organizations spend so much money on results and impact, so why don’t nonprofit organizations do the same? Lastly, it is interesting how Michael Smith from TED Talk mentions how we like to see rates on the kinds of food we eat, so don’t we demand the same from nonprofit organizations? Results are important in any arena, for-profit or nonprofit.

Lastly, failing to engage in effective evaluation of programs and their impact will eventually show in amount of funding you receive. People like to see change and improvement in paper because an Executive Director or the development team speaking highly about the organization can only do so much. Donors like to see year by year changes. Donors like to see how much an individual or community was influenced by the organization.