Mismeasuring Impact
How Randomized Controlled Trials Threaten the Nonprofit Sector
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Mismeasuring Impact
How Randomized Controlled Trials Threaten the Nonprofit Sector
About this book
The hidden dangers of randomized controlled trials
The need to demonstrate the effectiveness of nonprofit social programs has led to a rapid rise in the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), for evaluation. As a result, most nonprofit sector professionals can tell you why nonprofits should do an RCT. This book tells you why they probably shouldn't, and what to do instead.
Mismeasuring Impact explores why RCTs are being embraced as the "gold standard" for nonprofit evaluation, despite the high cost and time investment required and the serious problems with using RCTs in a nonprofit context. (Most RCTs conducted in nonprofits fail to meet required standards for rigor, undercutting their accuracy). The book describes what happens inside nonprofits when they take part in RCTs, the unintended equity issues that arise, and why nonprofits feel pressured participate in RCTs despite the problems.
University of Chicago professors Marwell and Mosley's research is based on extensive interviews with key players: nonprofit managers, professional program evaluators, and program officers in philanthropic foundations. The book argues that, ultimately, RCTs are used to poorly ground nonprofit legitimacy, not to foster nonprofit improvement. RCTs also privilege program and organizational standardization over the key strengths of nonprofit organizations: flexible innovation and responsiveness to community needs.
Nonprofits and funders need forms of evaluation that lift up these strengths. Mismeasuring Impact offers alternative approaches that build strong organizations, not just cookie-cutter programs, and which funders and nonprofits of all sizes can support.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Praise for Mismeasuring Impact
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Five Problems with RCTs, and Why They Threaten the Nonprofit Sector
- 2. The Siren Song of RCTs: Building the Gold Standard Movement
- 3. Null Effects and Dumb Effects: Do RCTs Really Tell Us “What Works?”
- 4. “This Was Harder Than We Thought”: Implementing RCTs in Nonprofits
- 5. Looking for Legitimacy: Why We Keep Doing RCTs
- 6. What Kind of Work Should We Value?: How RCTs Undermine the Equity Goals of Nonprofits and the Communities They Serve
- 7. A Bad Fit: How RCTs Hinder Nonprofit Responsiveness and Innovation
- 8. How Might We Think About Evaluation Differently?: Three Principles for Nonprofit Improvement
- 9. Moving Beyond RCTs: Lessons for Nonprofit Leaders, Donors, Evaluators, and Policymakers
- Appendix: Research Methodology
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index