Creating a Culture of Learning and Evaluation in a Multi-Service Nonprofit Conference roundtable

Creating a culture where nonprofit staff actually utilizes outcomes measurement and evaluation techniques on a regular basis is extremely challenging. The Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), a multi-service nonprofit in Washington, DC is an example of a nonprofit that has achieved this culture change. This roundtable allowed LAYC’s Learning and Evaluation Division, the internal program evaluation group at LAYC, to share some of the lessons learned, challenges encountered, and techniques used during this multi-year process. We discussed the initial steps we took to convince staff to embrace evaluation concepts, growth of evaluation capacity within the organization, maintenance of the culture over time, and unexpected challenges.