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Mission Centered Program Evaluation

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Do you feel unsure where to begin when it comes to implementing a plan for program evaluation? 

Recently Dr. Tarek Azzam, Director at the Center for Evaluation and Assessment at Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, UCSB, offered a webinar to provide some guidance. The webinar offered a cursory overview of how to use evaluation as a means of truly supporting the mission of your organization.  Following are some of the key takeaways and resources provided:

  • The evaluation process should begin with engaging stakeholders.
  • Start with an evaluation plan that is feasible for your organization.
  • The evaluation process is continuous and builds to greater depths of understanding and rigor through subsequent evaluation cycles.
  • Always identify the people who will be responsible to ensure the evaluation data is implemented. 

Dr. Azzam recommends the Program Evaluation Framework developed by Centers for Disease Control, as a useful model to use to implement program evaluation from beginning to end. 

With this advice in mind, the process of evaluation will become so much more meaningful and approachable for your organization. 

If you would like to look at this topic in more depth, following are some additional resources:

Beyond the Thank You Letter

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We all have some way of thanking our donors formally for gifts to our organizations. It might be an email or a postal letter. But then what? Are you done? Not if you want that donor to make the next gift.

Gillian Cole-Andrews recently shared ideas for making an annual calendar for continuing to engage your donors.

  • January. No one wants to give money in January. Send a “pre-tax letter” that thanks the donor for gifts made during the year, with a total figure of what was given.
  • February. This is the “lybunt” and “sybunt” month. That means you will write to your donors who gave to you last year but not this year, and those who gave to you some year but not this year. Write and thank them.
  • March. It’s “tour month.” Find a way to bring significant donors to see what you do, whatever it is.
  • April. Event month. Well, according to your organization’s calendar it might be a different month, but take advantage of whatever annual event you do to engage your donors in ways that reinforce their understanding of your mission and your work. If you have a big party, make it mean something in terms of what you do.
  • May. This can be your “annual appeal” in contrast to your end-of-year appeal.
  • June, July , August. Can you celebrate an anniversary? Of your organization’s existence? Of a program?
  • October. Send your impact report. Remind people that you exist and what you do and accomplish.
  • November. Tie a solicitation to something happening this month. Thanksgiving? Susan B. Anthony? Military Family Month?
  • December. This is your end-of-year annual appeal.

Certainly you can juggle some of these around or substitute different activities. The point is to create a annual plan for yourself to make donor appreciation and cultivation manageable.

For further reading:

Gifts of Stock

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A donor is interested in making a gift of stock to our nonprofit, but we don’t have a brokerage account. How can we accept the gift?

You may be tempted to wonder why not just have the donor sell the stock and then give the proceeds to the nonprofit. That is certainly an option, but often it is to the donor’s benefit to give the stock itself. For example, if the stock is worth more than when it was purchased, the donor avoids having to pay capital gains tax on the difference—and you get a bigger gift.

If your organization already has a brokerage account, the stock can be transferred directly. If not, you can look into opening one. That’s a particularly good idea if you expect to receive such donations frequently. A stumbling block, however, is that such accounts often have a significant minimum deposit.

If you don’t have a brokerage account and are not in a position to open one, organizations like the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County can help you. A charity itself, the Community Foundation can accept the gift, sell the stock, and pass the proceeds to your nonprofit.

This is also a good time to review your gift acceptance policy and make sure it is clear as to whether or not you accept gifts of stock and, assuming you do, what you will do with the gift. Often, it is best to sell the stock the same day it is received. Here are two good resources for more information on this topic:

Beginner’s Tips for Nonprofit Budgeting

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Creating the first budget for your new nonprofit? Or are you a new board treasurer and inherited a budget or budget process that really needs “upgrading?”

Monte S. Meyers, writing in Blue Avocado, provides some excellent, practical tips for involving the right people in the process, creating your budget, and monitoring it once it’s been adopted. Here are just a few examples:

  • Establish a clear budget development process. Who plays what part, and by when?
  • Develop a written set of “budget assumptions”—the information and thinking used to develop the numbers.
  • Use a budget spreadsheet or budgeting app that identifies each of the areas that make up your budget.
  • Be conservative in your revenue estimates.
  • When you can, enter realistic monthly numbers, rather than just dividing a total by 12.

Read Monte’s full article in Blue Avocado.

Do You Owe Sales Tax?

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As a nonprofit organization you may qualify for exemption from paying both federal and state income tax, but sales tax is a different matter. With some exceptions, a nonprofit’s sales and purchases are taxable. In other words, nonprofit and religious organizations, in general, are treated just like other California sellers and buyers for sales and use tax purposes.

For example, one of our local nonprofits held a day-long yard sale. All of the items sold had been donated to the organization for this purpose. Some members of the organization were surprised to learn that they needed to pay sales tax to the State of California based on the amount of their sales that day.

Some other examples:

  • Sales of food, meals, beverages, and similar items under a number of different circumstances.
  • Sales of tickets that buyers will exchange for food, beverages, or other physical products.
  • Sales of booklets, books, pamphlets, etc.
  • Sales of tickets for fundraising events when the ticket price includes amounts for food or beverages.
  • Sales of merchandise in Internet, live, and silent auctions.

Thankfully, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration has published a guide specifically for nonprofits. Download your copy here.

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