Washington Evaluators Brown Bag by Johanna Morariu, Kat Athanasiades, and Ann Emery February 25, 2013 Nonprofits hear a lot of talk about evaluation these days—metrics and measurements, indicators and impact, efficiency and effectiveness. Everyone seems to want evaluation results—from nonprofit staff themselves to donors to board members. But there’s a gap in the conversation: What are nonprofits really doing to evaluate their work? How are they using evaluation results? Do nonprofit staff have the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to carry out effective evaluation? We answered these questions—and many others—in State of Evaluation 2012: Nonprofit Evaluation Practice and Capacity. The State of Evaluation project is the first nationwide project that systematically and repeatedly collects data from nonprofits about their evaluation practices. During the brown bag, we’ll discuss the new findings from this research. For example, we found that: 90% of organizations report evaluating their work (up from 85% in 2010); 100% of organizations reported using and communicating their evaluation findings; Budgeting for evaluation is still low—more than 70% of organizations are spending less than 5% of organizational budgets on evaluation; and, on average, evaluation—and its close relation, research—continue to be the lowest priorities for nonprofits (compared to fundraising, financial management, communications, etc.). Innovation Network is a nonprofit evaluation, research, and consulting firm. We provide knowledge and expertise to help nonprofits and funders learn from their work to improve their results. Johanna Morariu, Director, leads the work of the organization as well as projects with a broad assortment of philanthropic and nonprofit organizations. Kat Athanasiades and Ann Emery, Associates, provide project support.