Observation is a method to gather data by watching events or behaviors that can give information beyond what you can draw from numbers and is helpful in several situations:
  • To collect data that is unavailable through other methods. People are sometimes unable or unwilling to participate in surveys or interviews.
  • To understand an ongoing situation or process. For example, you want to identify efficiencies/inefficiencies in the process of college registration process as students meet with advisors to create a semester schedule.
  • To know more about a physical setting. For example, you want to determine if a residential rehabilitation center’s facilities are conducive to recovery.
  • To understand more about interactions. For example, you want to determine if a motivational guest speaker sparks interest in at-risk youth in a college preparatory program.

Have you been tasked with evaluating a program and don’t know where to begin? If so, you aren’t alone. Many people struggle with program evaluation. This new three-part series on evaluation will prepare you to design and implement a strong evaluation comprised of quantitative and qualitative data analysis. You will also understand how to secure a third-party evaluator, if you need one. This post focuses on how to conduct an environmental scan and needs assessment.

All the time and effort you put into designing a great project and developing a clear, well-written grant proposal has paid off and you’ve received a notice of award from the funder. Now, it’s time to ensure that you are a great steward of the grant funds that you have received.

    Grant Ethics: Grant Ethics for Consultants Session 8 of the Ethics Series While all nonprofit professionals have many ethical issues to consider as they conduct pre-award and post-award grant activities, grant consultants have additional areas of which to be mindful because they run their own businesses instead...

    Grant Ethics: The Ethics of Program Implementation and Reporting After a Grant is Funded Session 7 of the Ethics Series While ethics must be considered in all stages of the grant lifecycle, the part that most people worry about is program implementation and reporting. Here grant professionals...

  Building Collaborative Partnerships through Subrecipient Monitoring Session 8 of the Partnerships Series $50 | 60 minutes Enroll Now     Organizations which serve as pass-through entities for federal funding are required to monitor their subrecipients. This responsibility comes with a great opportunity to strengthen collaborative partnerships by intentionally building the subrecipients’...

    Basic Grant Management Session 11 of the Grant Funding Basics Series Grant management is a continuum directly related to grant readiness. It points to an organization’s ability to follow through on what it said it would do and follow established best practices for financial, data, and records management. This...

  Federal Grant Management - Non-Financial Requirements Session 12 of the Federal Grant Development Series While most people think of the financial management of a federal grant as the area with the greatest challenges or newest requirements, there are also many non-financial requirements that must be considered when managing...

    Organizational Readiness Session 3 of the Grant Funding Basics Series Should your organization be applying for grants? Are you grant ready? What does grant ready mean anyway? This session examines the readiness of organizations for grant revenue starting at the top with the board, then it examines the...

    Federal Grant Management - Financial Requirements Session 11 of the Federal Grant Development Series The most common concerns related to federal grant management are around the financial requirements. These requirements include paying staff, contracting for services, travel, and purchasing materials. This session will discuss the most common policies...