Children\'s Defense Fund Evaluation Plan

Children's Defense Fund

Evaluation Plan for the Children's Defense Fund

Evaluating the success of a non-profit organization such as the Children's Defense Fund requires a careful plan that must be adhered to, with clear definitions of success established by the questions asked in the evaluation. As ending childhood poverty and ensuring adequate access to healthcare are top priorities for the organization, the evaluation will question the efficacy of current projects and programs by attempting to determine the economic standing of children and families as well as their access to healthcare prior to each particular program's implementation, and assessing the same factors after program implementation (CDF 2010). Analyzing the results of this evaluation in terms of the dollars spent on each particular program will give an even more accurate picture of the true efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the organization. Education and general welfare are also major concerns for the organization, and similar evaluations will be conducted in these areas with same goal of determining cost effectiveness (CDF 2010).

Though it is not always necessary to utilize the services of an outside consultant to conduct this type of evaluation -- in-house personnel will likely present a cost-savings to the organization and will also likely lead to a greater efficiency in the evaluation itself, as they will have a much greater familiarity with the programs and intentions of the Children's Defense fund -- the results of any evaluation will also be vetted by such outside consultants. This will provide greater objectivity in the results of the analysis, which has several benefits to the organization. In addition to simply having a more assured knowledge of the efficacy of the many programs operates by the Children's Defense Fund, the greater objectivity of an outside consultant will be more compelling to many donors and potential donors, leading to increased revenue for the non-profit.

The results of all evaluations will be used in a variety of ways to improve the programs currently operated by the Children's Defense Fund and to suggest new areas in which the development of programs would be of assistance to the Fund's overall mission of providing a "strong, effective, independent voice for all the children of America" (CDF 2010). Programs found to be less cost-effective than would be desired will be further analyzed to determine how cost savings might be achieved, with the complete scrapping of certain programs and the creation of new and similarly-targeted programs when necessary. Evaluations will also be used to determine budgeting needs for ongoing project management and implementation, resulting in more accurate projections and thus leading to more focused and more effective fundraising efforts. This leads to another important use for the results of these evaluation that, while not directly related to the specific mission of the organization, is nonetheless highly important in achieving this mission: marketing. The simple fact that the Children's Defense Fund is concerned with evaluating its programs and its use of donor dollars will increase the profile of the organization if properly publicized, showing that this is a non-profit organization truly committed to achieving its goals and using its resources as effectively as possible. Publicizing the positive results of evaluations and even showing how negative results are being addressed will assist still further in achieving this end.