Hello Neighbor, Meet (Affordable & Useful) MEL!
Dear nonprofit movers & shakers,
When you hear “monitoring and evaluation” what comes to mind? Burdensome paperwork for funding requirements? Anxiety of being judged by folks who just don’t get it? Unnecessary bean counting that takes time away from your actual work? Yeah, we’ve been there too. We understand that evaluation can sometimes have a bad rap among small nonprofits and grassroots organizations who are just trying to do what they do best to serve communities.
That’s why we recently partnered with Hello Neighbor Network, a coalition of nonprofits working with refugees and immigrants across the U.S., to offer a virtual Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) workshop tailored for leaders who are ready to ask the right questions & uncover data driven insights - without breaking the bank or wasting staff time.
Alongside their fantastic National Program Manager, Rachel Viniguerra, I2I designed and facilitated a custom “evaluation 101” workshop for a cohort of 24 nonprofit leaders from across the country. During this 90-minute, hands-on workshop, we shared the benefits of evaluation with a group of dedicated, passionate folks who often lack the time and resources to fully capitalize on the power of evaluation. Together, we interactively explored the “what”, “why”, “when” and “who” of MEL, discussed strategies for “how” to conduct program evaluation, engaged in a logic modeling exercise, and offered free/affordable/accessible tools to the nonprofit leaders so they can feasibly conduct program evaluation in the near term.
Here’s what Rachel had to say about the experience:
"Nina and Kathleen from Intention 2 Impact developed a tailored workshop for the Hello Neighbor Network members. They met with me to best understand the audience and what would be most useful to the group and used a specific program example that was relevant to our members for an interactive activity that really allowed folks to get some practice with evaluative thinking and gave rise to new and important questions. They did a great job of breaking down what can be a complicated and overwhelming topic for many nonprofit leaders into something that felt both manageable and mission-aligned. I have already recommended them to other nonprofit leaders and will continue to do so, the work they do is fantastic!" -Rachel Vinciguerra, National Program Manager of the Hello Neighbor Network
We had a blast engaging with Hello Neighbors dynamic network of leaders, are grateful to be invited into their space, and looking forward to future collaborations. If you want to learn more about partnering with I2I to facilitate a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) training for your organization, LET’S CONNECT! Let us support you in your quest to transform the way you view monitoring & evaluation, boost your confidence to dabble with data, and strengthen your organizational learning towards more meaningful impact.
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