The following resources provide guidance on how to build evaluation capacity to improve organizational effectiveness, including State and local examples.
Building Capacity to Improve Program Evaluation in Child Welfare
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau (2020)
Presents resources from the Children's Bureau on efforts to improve evaluation in child welfare. The resources include tools for directors and evaluators, evaluation summit materials, videos, webinars, and more.
Evaluation Capacity Building Evaluations (ECB) Interventions and the Development of Sustainable Evaluation Practice: An Exploratory Study (PDF - 249 KB)
Wade & Kallemeyn (2020)
Evaluation and Program Planning, 79
Examines how evaluation capacity building can be used to develop sustained evaluation practice in organizations such as nonprofits, higher education institutions, and foundations. The article explores how evaluation practice develops over time and what these practices look like in real-world settings.
Narrative Review of Strategies by Organizations for Building Evaluation Capacity
Norton, Milat, Edwards, & Griffin (2016)
Evaluation and Program Planning, 58
Identifies strategies used by organizations to build evaluation capacity and describes common success factors and lessons learned from these efforts.
Using Data and Evaluation to Drive Decisions and Make Improvements During a Change and Implementation Process
Capacity Building Center for States (2019)
Children's Bureau Express, 20(6)
Offers guidance to organizations on collecting, analyzing, and using data and evaluation effectively during a change and implementation process. The brief presents three key considerations related to using data and conducting evaluations of programs and practices and presents information and resources related to evaluation.
State and local examples
Building Evaluation Capacity Initiative
Yale School of Medicine
Highlights the Yale Building Evaluation Capacity Initiative, which provides training and technical assistance to organizations in Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia regions on program evaluation, quality improvement, and using data to drive decision making.
Extraordinary Work Requires Extraordinary Evidence
Porter (2019)
Children's Bureau Express, 20(6)
Presents information on how Children's Trust of South Carolina used implementation and evaluation to launch evidence-based programs and worked to build evidence to support family strengthening initiatives.