Welcome to the November edition of the impact round-up. I trust you’re all thinking about how we only have six weeks until Christmas 🎅🤶🎄, but here’s some impact news to keep you going until then!
In this edition, we spotlight opportunities in impact and evaluation and share useful evaluation resources and training opportunities.
Our NCVO evaluation consultancy team continues to grow
We recently welcomed our newest member to the team, Sandy Chidley, as an evaluation consultant. Sandy brings a range of social research and evaluation experience from his previous roles at Ipsos MORI and NatCen. He’ll help us continue to provide high-quality impact and evaluation consultancy for our members and the sector more broadly.
And we’re still hiring! Come work with us!
We’re looking for a senior evaluation consultant to complement our existing team. The successful applicant will help lead on providing high-quality training, capacity-building and consultancy for the sector.
Spread the word if you know someone who ‘d be interested! The deadline for applications is 09.00 on 22 November.
What we’ve been reading and experimenting with recently
From across the impact blogosphere
- Alison McKinley, evidence and learning manager at Comic Relief, talks through the outcome harvesting method and how it was used in the evaluation of the Power Up! programme.
- With remote evaluations likely to be here for the long-term, we found these insights and lessons, shared in Part 1 and Part 2, learned from Khulisa Management Services a fascinating read.
- Gordon Wanzare, chairperson of the Evaluation Society of Kenya, explores the concept of evaluation use, how evaluation practitioners view it and how this translates into their work. In other words, he explores how evaluators are reporting and supporting evaluation use and influence.
- Avni Mishra, associate scientist, and Kirthi Rao, evidence impact specialist, at 3IE discuss how null findings can still help inform programming, programme monitoring, evaluation and decision-making.
- Systems thinking has different definitions but the most common seem to focus on recognising the complexity of life, understanding that things are not stable and linear. This challenges the use of logic models in evaluation as being overly simple. There’s a lot more to be said on this! This collaborative document is for campaigners but has broader significance. There are many useful links and resources in the document and is well worth a read.
- Bored of the traditional evaluation report? Want to see an alternative? Chris Lysy suggests that you present your findings using a slidedoc. I’ve used PowerPoint for reporting before and it’s easier to format and add data visualisation than Word, in my opinion.
- CFO Perspective has written an interesting article on how to prioritise what’s important to you. We think it’s useful to help you decide on prioritising measurement too.
Helpful and interesting tools
- Jamboard is a digital interactive whiteboard developed by Google. In an ever more digital world, it provides a way of sharing and developing ideas as a team, no matter where you’re joining from.
- Miro is similar to Jamboard. It’s also a digital interactive whiteboard but it has a lot more functionality than Jamboard. For example, it has an ‘infinite canvas’ so you can grow your theory of change as big as you like. This YouTube video explains how it works. There’s a free version with basic functionality.
- Mentimeter uses live polls, quizzes, word clouds, Q&As and more to get real-time input – regardless of if you’re operating remotely, hybrid or face-to-face.
- QDA Miner is free software for qualitative data analysis. Again, the free version has limited functionality but is still useful.
Equity, diversity and inclusion guidance
NCVO is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. We’re on an internal journey to learn and challenge ourselves to embed equity, diversity and inclusion in our everyday practice and behaviours. We also want to help the sector to make a difference. We have guidance on getting started.
Have you used Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales to measure wellbeing?
The What Works Centre for Wellbeing want to learn about studies where improvement in mental wellbeing is an objective. They are interested in studies from across voluntary, public and private sectors, to summarise evidence on what works to improve mental wellbeing, for whom and in what contexts. The blog on their website explains more about this call for evidence.
NCVO impact, evaluation and strategy training
We’re also continuing to run accessible and affordable online courses, focusing on key topics such as:
- outcomes
- impact and theory of change
- governance, strategy and volunteering.
We make sure your learning needs are met through interactive, live sessions with knowledgeable and experienced trainers – with discounts for NCVO members. Not yet a member? Find out more about NCVO membership.
Here’s what’s coming up soon:
- Strategic planning: processes and tools for direction and decision making – 16 November
- Creating a theory of change for your charity – 24 November
- Equality, diversity and inclusion in charity governance (3 x 0.5 days) – 19 January
- Outcomes and impact measurement – 21 January
We can also come to you! Our courses can be delivered virtually online, providing an affordable way to train groups of staff, trustees or volunteers. Fill in our training and events form for more information.
As always, please feel free to email us any thoughts or ideas on what you’d like have covered in future round-ups!
Sarah Menzies is a consultant with NCVO Charities Evaluation Services. She specialises in supporting voluntary sector organisations of diverse sizes and scope to build their capacity in evaluation. This is done through training, consultancy and specialised group support. She is a mixed methods researcher but has expertise on action research, empowering /inclusive research and working with marginalised communities. 
