Evaluation Essentials with Dr. Beth DaPonte
From Next in Nonprofits by Next in Nonprofits
March 31, 2026 · 43 min · Episode 144
About this episode
Dr. Beth DaPonte discusses her book 'Essential Evaluations' and the importance of program evaluation for nonprofit organizations.
Dr. Beth DaPonte is the author of the new edition of Essential Evaluations and a consulting serving nonprofit organizations from Social Science Consultants. Dr. DaPonte has served with the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the United Nations and been a Lecturer, Yale School of Management amongst many other roles. Beth joins host Steve Boland to talk about the new edition of her Evaluations Essentials book, and why and how nonprofit organizations can develop and use program evaluation in their work. She discusses the basics of a theory of change, logic models, and more. The book covers ideas including early literature reviews, the use of a program evaluation reference group to provide a broad array of stakeholders to prioritize questions and access in evaluation. Beth talks about how unexpected challenges over time in evaluation (COVID shut downs for example) can become part of the evaluation story. (Also, thanks to XKCD for the causation v. correlation cartoon!). Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!
People in this episode
Guest: Dr. Beth Daponte
Topics covered
- program evaluation
- nonprofit management
- theory of change
- logic models
- stakeholder engagement
Keywords
- Essential Evaluations
- theory of change
- logic models
- program evaluation reference group
- COVID challenges
Mentioned in this episode
Products: Essential Evaluations
Books & works: Evaluation Essentials, Essential Evaluations, Evaluations Essentials
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