Plan for your nonprofit’s future with Evaluation Explorations
By Annalise Tolley
At the Charlotte Urban Institute, we see the amazing work of local nonprofits every day. They house community members, inspire children to pursue higher education, and empower single-parent families to thrive. It’s clear: Charlotte has no shortage of dedicated leaders invested in our city’s future.
Despite a growing need for services in our community, many nonprofits are facing major funding cuts that put critical services at risk. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for nonprofits to understand, collect, and manage their data to learn which programs make the most impact. This isn’t just about numbers; it’s about developing and maintaining programs that work, attracting private funders, and making smart decisions about the sustainability of existing programs.
That’s where the Impact, Data and Evaluation Academy (IDEA) can help.
If you:
- want to improve your programs and your organization’s effectiveness,
- wonder how your organization can make a big splash with reduced funding,
- need help attracting new funders with meaningful data,
- or wish you could handle more data analysis internally instead of always outsourcing help, the IDEA team is available and ready to help you make the necessary operational strides.
To tackle these challenges and more, a strong foundation in data and evaluation is key – and our flagship program, Evaluation Explorations, can help with that.
Registration for the fall cohort is is now! Click here to register.
What you’ll take away
When you finish the course, you’ll leave equipped with practical tools and a clearer path forward, including:
- a custom logic model for your program
- a draft survey to collect feedback
- a draft interview/focus group guide
- a plan for safely storing your data, and
- an evaluation plan for your organization
Course details
Evaluation Explorations will run and operate as follows:
Dates: October 3, 10, and 17
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. each day
Location: UNC Charlotte Main Campus
Cost: $500 per person (includes lunch and parking validation for each day)
We are committed to making this valuable experience accessible to all nonprofits.
Scholarships are available for small nonprofits and for organizations that wish to enroll multiple staff members in the course. If cost is a barrier to participation, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly at ideacademy@charlotte.edu.
Hear from our first pilot participants
This past spring, we launched the pilot of Evaluation Explorations, and the feedback from more than 20 Charlotte nonprofit leaders and students was overwhelmingly positive!
Participants highlighted “meaningful conversations” and in-person, cohort-style learning that allowed them to learn from instructors and each other, as reasons they enjoyed the course. Some also reported a “changing mindset when it comes to data,” appreciating how we made traditionally academic concepts feel approachable. A key takeaway was “getting the opportunity to practice with our own data,” where they drafted their organization’s evaluation plans and applied lessons to their own survey results.
Ready to register? We used what we learned from our pilot program and from participants to improve Evaluation Explorations, and we are now recruiting for our second cohort! Space is limited, so we encourage you to register today!
Questions? If you have any questions about Evaluation Explorations or need help determining if this program is right for your organization, please click here to sign up for a 15-minute discovery call or email ideacademy@charlotte.edu. We’re excited to keep building spaces like this to support your continuous learning and growth. If you’re interested in learning more about IDEA, I encourage you to click here to check out our website and click here to sign up for our quarterly newsletter!