Evaluation
If We Can Do It, So Can You: Mobile Evaluations at the 09NTC
Karl Hedstrom, NTEN
Every year at NTEN's annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), one of our major goals is to collect enough feedback from you, the attendees, to make our future conferences even better.
Historically, we've accomplished this through the tried and true method of paper evaluations. At the 2009 NTC, we decided to give this system a major tech overhaul by implementing a mobile text messaging version of this: the Mobile Evaluation.
We're fairly certain that if an organization with 5 full-time employees can pull off a full-scale mobile program in just one month, you can, too. Here's the skinny:
2009 NTC Preview: Karen Michaelson on Evaluation
As nonprofits, we're focused on action, all the time. We want to be out in the field, serving clients, all the time. It's go, go, go for the mission, all the time.
Time is a luxury we don't have in our line of work -- which is why I think so many of us resist evaluation. Why would you reflect on how you feed people when you could just go feed people?
Of course, we know better. Evaluation helps us do our work better, and we all want to do our work better. The trick for our sector is going to be moving evaluation from that thing you do when you can force yourself to sit down for a few minutes to that thing that happens as you do your work.
As Executive Director at Tincan, Karen Michaelson has had lots of practice. At the NTC, she'll share her experiences at her session, "Evaluating Outcomes: Real Techniques for Measuring Civic Engagement and Technology Fluency".
She spoke to me about it:
