Program Evaluation & Narrative

My new post at PhilanTopic, the Philanthropy News Digest blog, explores ways in which narrative can work alongside evaluation to determine organizational strategy.

An excerpt:

• Theories of Change should be accompanied by Stories of Change! Not simply an expository description of your Theory of Change, but an actual story with a beginning, middle, and end, conflict, and resolution. What is the future aspirational end toward which your organization is working? Where, and in what ways, have you already told that story?

• Narrative evaluation can support more seemingly rigorous methods of quantitative evaluation. In fact, narrative evaluation can uncover truths that may be difficult to surface in other ways.

Continue reading here, for suggestions on how to incorporate narrative into your work with program officers, grantees, and evaluators.