Reference no: EM133278794

Key people are effected by evaluation findings and reports-individual constituents, programs and staff that run these programs, Board of Directors, senior leadership, and/or the entire nonprofit organization. Also, it should be noted that evaluation reports can serve many purposes such as program improvement, summative decisions, draw attention to an issue, change attitudes and educate others, and enhance communication between various groups of stakeholders.

Therefore we conclude this module by adding that it is important to be able to present and display data in such a manner that readers (mindful that there will be many audiences) can easily understand the information, readily see patterns, and extract the most important findings from it. One way to clearly display evaluation findings and data is to give the audience pictures.

A second consideration in presenting evaluation findings is to try to state the results in a way that may lead to action or to the desired influence we wish to have on the audience. One way to present findings that still keeps the door open for stakeholder groups to draw their own conclusions, if that is the objective, is to report the finding and ask that the reader consider various implications or actions.

The smoking cessation program implemented at University College and two other large east coast schools produced a 62% reduction in the number of people in the program who stopped smoking.

Considerations:

o Expand the program to more universities.

o Evaluate if the program can run for a shorter time, thus reducing expenses, yet remain as effective.

o Determine if the program is more or less effective on various demographic groups, such as men vs. women or younger vs. middle age?

o Assess if the program can be delivered online to a wider audience at less expense rather than in a face-to-face format. Notice the action verbs? Note the tone that you are offering various next steps for the stakeholders' consideration, and that you are offering more than one choice.

DISCUSSION: Try your hand at making up a finding about an organization such as the example provided above. Present this finding in a way that would encourage the audience to take action and make the needed changes.