Outcomes Studies and Program Evaluation
(links to external Web sites)

• American Evaluation Association
  Works to ensure application and exploration of program and personnel evaluation, as well as use of technology and many other forms of evaluation.
  
  
• Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Pathways Online Courses
  Offers free online program evaluation and substance abuse prevention courses for professionals and for users needing an introduction to topics presented. In a user-friendly yet comprehensive way, these courses address basic and more advanced levels of program evaluation through tutorials and case-studies. The Prevention Pathways Online Courses are now approved for certification credit hours by the Arkansas Prevention Certification Board (APCB) and the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS).



• ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation
  Serves as a clearinghouse for assessment, evaluation, and research information.



• Grantmakers Evaluation Network
  Advocates for effective evaluation within the philanthropic community, making those within it better consumers and producers of evaluation information.



• Harvard Family Research Project
  Includes research and reports on out-of-school time programs, a periodical on evaluating child and family services ("The Evaluation Exchange"), many resources for educators on family involvement in education, and publications on a range of topics relating to children and education.



• Independent Sector
  Strengthens not-for-profit initiative, philanthropy, and citizen action through a coalition of leading nonprofits, foundations and corporations. Maintains the NonProfit Pathfinder Web site, which serves as a gateway leading scholars, researchers, practitioners, funders and the media to the best available research on the nonprofit sector.



• Innovation Network
  Builds the evaluation and learning capacity of nonprofits, so that they can effectively assess themselves, measure the impact they are having on their community, and improve their efforts. Promotes the fair exchange of evaluative tools, processes, and lessons learned in the field.



• Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits (Free Management Library)
  Provides leaders and managers (especially those with very limited resources) basic and practical information about business, management, and organizations. A free community resource, it includes guides such as Basic Guide to Outcomes-Based Evaluation for Nonprofit Organizations with Very Limited Resources and Basic Guide to Program Evaluation, original material, and links to best resources on the Web.



• Online Evaluation Resource Library
  Supports the continuous improvement of project evaluations by providing a large collection of sound plans, reports, and instruments, guidelines for how to improve evaluation practice, and a forum for stimulating ongoing dialogue in the evaluation community. OERL is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).



• Outcomes Measurement Resource Network (United Way of America)
  Provides United Way of America's and other organizations outcome measurement resources and learnings.



• Free Resources for Methods in Program Evaluation and Social Research
  Lists free resources for program evaluation and social research methods, with a focus on "how-to" do evaluation research and the methods used: surveys, focus groups, sampling, interviews and other methods.



• The Urban Institute
  Strives to sharpen thinking about society's problems and efforts at solving them by bringing three critical ingredients to public debates on domestic policy initiatives: accurate data, careful and objective analyses, and perspective.