How to Tell If Your Nonprofit Program Works

What it is

Most programs are never examined, and the reason is not negligence. Examination feels like doubt, and doubt feels disloyal toward the people you are trying to serve. So the design remains in one person’s judgment, eligibility is decided by whoever answers the telephone, and the dose declines until what is delivered is a gesture.

The book is practical rather than academic. Theory of change without the jargon, on one page. Dosage, and the threshold below which a program is not being delivered. Fidelity, and which components are load-bearing. The pilot, which is a question with an end date rather than a smaller version of the program. Intake, safeguarding, participant voice, and maintaining quality when nobody is observing.

Then measurement you can conduct with volunteers and a spreadsheet, and the harder discipline of reporting what you found without overstating it.