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DARE Impact Consulting

Always be learning

Published over 2 years ago • 1 min read

Issue #14

Weekly evaluation inspiration for...

Non-profits who DARE

Hi! I'm Allison and I help non-profits use learning and evaluation in their day-to-day work. I'm also on a mission to help non-profit organizations spend less time on busy work and more time actually making change in communities.

This week, I've been thinking a lot about the harm evaluators and researchers have done in positioning quantitative data, and especially randomized controlled trials, as the only way to really learn about what works.

It's left a lot of organizations fearful of even the word 'evaluation', and meant that we're not using the data and tools we have available to learn and improve our programs. And in complex, changing times, learning and improving is critical.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I really think we need to centre learning in our everyday work in the non-profit sector. We can learn so much from each other, from the people we support, and from our past work and future aspirations.

Learning is what helps us know that we're on the right track, and gives us information about when we should think critically about how we do things. Being part of a learning organization is more engaging for our staff and more impactful for our communities. It's really a win-win-win.

It's so important to remember that numbers aren't the only indicators we should be looking out for. In fact, numbers in isolation tell so little of the story.

What should we do? Get curious. Ask questions. It doesn't have to be the perfect question, but I encourage you to ask it anyway.

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1672 Hebert, Tecumseh, Ontario N8N4E9
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