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Funding limits. Some government granting agencies limit their fund­ing to nonprofit organizations. In some cases, these are limited exclu­sively to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations, a status that an evaluationfirm may have difficulty justifying. For-profits are not able to apply forfunds to develop and evaluate programs for pregnant teenagers, or childabuse programs in the state of Michigan. Similarly, some grants fromthe federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funds arelimited to nonprofit organizations.

Working on social problems. For-profit evaluation firms do notusually flaunt their for-profit structure, since many clients are nonprofitstate or private social service agencies. Levying a profit on statecontracts is often not allowed, especially those that are limited bycost-reimbursement. In these cases, making a profit is not possible, andthe administrative ease of managing a for-profit structure becomes theonly advantage.

Independent Consultation:TIG NewsletterAnnouncement

The Independent Consulting TIG announces its newsletter, the firstissue of which is to be published in early 1988. Possible subsectionsinclude Marketing, Proposals and Contracts, Business Management,Client Relations, and Help Wanted. We are also soliciting ideas for aname for our newsletter! -

Articles, items, anecdotes, and ideas should be sent to the editor,Carolyn A. Thieme-Busch at 29 Rutherford Circle, Sterling, VA 22170.

Topical Interest Group onNonprofits andFoundations: 1987Annual ReportDavid BernsteinTlG Chair

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PURPOSE STATEMENT

The purpose of the TOPICAL INTEREST GROUP (TIG) ON NON­PROFITS AND FOUNDATIONS of the American Evaluation Asso­ciation (AEA) is to foster evaluation practices in the "independentsector" by sponsoring opportunities for professionals of all fields toshare experiences, exchange information, and learn more about thefunction and conduct of evaluation in a variety of settings.

REPORT ON 1986-1987 ACTIVITIES

Evaluation '87 Conference Activities

Since 1984, the TIG has sponsored several presessions, panels, andthe annual meeting during the AEA annual conference. These activitiesconstitute the largest of the TIG's membership services. As an outgrowthof a TIG-sponsored 1986 presession, Steven lung sent out a mailingwith several articles on evaluation in nonprofit settings.

Several activities are planned for Evaluation '87, to be held in Bostonfrom October 14th through 17th. These include:

• A presession on Developing Effective Program Evaluation in Not-for­Profit Organizations. led by Dr. Arnold Love, an adjunct professorwith the Voluntary Sector Management Program at York University inToronto, Canada, and coordinated by Ken Bickel of the Aid Associa­tion for Lutherans. (See Outreach Activities, below.)

• The TlG on Nonprofits and Foundations Annual Meeting, chaired byDavid Bernstein of the American Red Cross and Steven Jung ofStanford University, will provide both old and new TIG members witha summary of 1987activities. An agenda for the next year will be setduring a discussion led by Steven Jung, who will be assuming theposition of Chair of the TIG. Other leadership positions and oppor­tunities for participation, and potential services will be discussed.

• A Consensus Development Panel-Evaluation in Nonprofit Organiza­tions and Foundations. Over the past few years, members of the TIG,through papers, panels, and in meetings, have raised several questionsabout the function and conduct of evaluation in nonprofit andfoundation settings. This session seeks to organize the discussion andattempt to form a consensus on some of these questions. John SeeleyofFormative Evaluation Research Associates, Nick Smith of SyracuseUniversity, and Ken Bickel of the Aid Association for Lutherans willmake brief presentations. David Bernstein, Chair of the TlG, willchairthis session.

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• TIG on Nonprofits and Foundations Invited Presentation-UtilizationofEvaluation in a National Nonprofit Organization: PracticalApplica­tions ofEvaluation in the American Red Cross. Eachof the AEATIGswas asked to host a sessionfocusingon the conferencetheme, which is"Utilizing Evaluation Results." This session will focus on the way inwhich certain evaluation results have been utilized by the nationalheadquarters of a major nonprofit organization. K. Paul Knott,Communication Evaluation Officer, American Red Cross, is theinvited speaker.

Outreach Activities

By its very nature, the American Evaluation Association is anorganization whose natural audience (i.e., market) cuts across a varietyof disciplines and fields. In large part, this is the reason for the existenceof the Topical Interest Groups. These groups have the potential to bothkeep the interest of existing AEA members as well as to attract newmembers from the variety of disciplines and interests represented by thefifteen or so TIGs.

The TIG on Nonprofits and Foundations has always had an interestin serving the parent organization by attracting new members specificallyinterested in evaluation in nonprofit and foundation settings. Duringthe last year, these activities became more formalized with twoinitiatives.

First, following Evaluation '86, Jim Buie, Editor of Tax ExemptNews. authored an article on the TIG that appeared in the December3rd, 1986 edition. As a result of the article, thirteen inquiries about AEAand the TIG on Nonprofits and Foundations were received in early1987. AEA brochures and information on the TIG were sent to each ofthese potential members, along with a customized cover letter from theChair of the TIG designed to address the specific nature ofeach inquiry.While information is not available on how many new members joined asa result, the response to the article from a small targeted publication likeTax Exempt News should be seen as a success.

A second activity, under the leadership of former TIG Chair KenBickel, involved an effort to recruit new members through creation of apresession designed for both members interested in nonprofit evaluation,as well as nonmembers that might not have previously heard of AEA.Ken's report on this activity follows:

A major challengefor our TIG is that there is a limited number ojAEA members who are likely to choose this area as their primaryinterest area. Additionally, we suspect there are many people in non-

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profits across the country who have evaluation responsibilities as wellasa number ofother substantivefunctionalaccountabilities which competefor their self-development and conference time andbudget. Thisyear weattempted to address this issue by offering something thar could beattractive, a good value, and might raise awareness of the existence ofAEA.

Dr. Arnold Love and I proposedafull-day presession at the Bostonconference titled, "Evaluation for Nonprofit Organizations." It wasapproved, and at the time of this writing has ten enrollees. Theworkshop will be led by Arnold Love who has extensive experience asanevaluator in nonprofit settings and isan adjunct faculty member of YorkUniversity's Voluntary Sector Management Program (Toronto, Can­ada). Thispresession is intended to be introductory in nature, especiallysuited for persons working in nonprofits as directors, staff, or boardmembers.

AEA communication channels are inadequate for reaching thesegment ofinterest for this presession because they maynot currently bemembers ofAEA and are unlikely to be aware ofAEA through othermeans. A special news release was sent in June to six organizationsserving the nonprofit sector, three national and three serving thenortheast, announcing the event and the AEA annual conference tofollow. The three national organizations include VOLUNTEER, pub­lishers ofVolunteer Leadership, the COUNCIL ON FOUNDA TlONS,publishers ofFoundation News, and the Independent Sector. Telephonefollow-up callsweremade to all six organizations to learn ifandhow theoffer was announced.

As a result of this activity, several results/lessons learned areapparent. First, final approvals on presessions came too late in thespring to catch the summer deadlines of the major periodicals servingthe target population. Most ofthe promotionfor the presessionscamein early September, which may have been too lateforpotentialattendeesto make travel arrangements. The smaller newsletters were less of aproblem, but we failed to get timely coverage in the three majorpublications.

Second, as far as we know, the one page news release was used byeditors only to skim the basic information ofdate, place, and contactpeople, with little notice of the rest of the announcement. However,several editors seemed genuinely interested in keeping the AEA/ TlGconnection alive, in particular at Volunteer and Independent Sector.

Third, an option to consider in the future is offering the sameworkshop as a service ofA EA but choose asite and time independent of

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the AEA Conference. Further, there may be sufficient interest in theA EA presessions to warrant offering the most successful presessions as amid-year service of the organization. Lastly, the actual effects Oil

member recruitment will be assessed during the workshop through abriefsurvey.

Our thanks to Ken and Arnold for their leadership on this project.Attracting new membership is one small way in which the TopicalInterest Group on Nonprofits and Foundations seeks to support AEAin return for the generous and consistent support we have received fromthe Board and leadership of AEA.

Summary

It is the Chair's prerogative to conclude with a few thoughts on thestate of the TIG/ AEA. This Chair is not one to worry about precedents,as most of our TIG's history is comprised of "firsts"! It is interesting tonote that the proposed purpose statement for AEA is in many respectsvery similar to the purpose statement for this TIG, and that the TIGstatement predates that of the parent organization by at least a year.While it might be inappropriate of this Chair to take credit for thesimilarities, it might be a good test of whether or not the leadership ofAEA is paying attention, and I look forward to hearing from the Board,the President, or the President-Elect! In all seriousness, it is flattering toknow that our interest group has as its mission an intention statementthat is similar in both spirit and letter to that of the parent organization.

Second, I would like to take this opportunity to promote both theconcept of, and AEA support (financial and otherwise) for, the TIGs.The TIG has allowed me the opportunity to remain in touch with agroup of professionals who are as interested in nonprofits andfoundations as I am. I may not have had the continuing support of mybosses (for which I am grateful) had AEA not had a focus that made myparticipation relevant to the Red Cross. OurTIGs should be supported,for without them, AEA might lose its relevance for a good manymembers of our multi-faceted professional organization. I encourageAEA's leadership to enhance the role of the TIGs and continue tosupport their activities.

There are a number of issues that Peter Gray as Chair of the AEACommittee on TIGs will be bringing to the AEA Board's attention.Among these are a definition of active membership, which this TIG hasbadly needed for some time. Our ability to offer services in between

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conferences has been limited because of this lack of definition of theTIG's membership, which at one time two years ago was in thehundreds, and has not been updated since AEA was formed fromERS/ ENet. A clear definition is a prerequisite to enhancement/ expan­sion of our services.

The subject of dues and ways to contain costs will also be discussed.Such mechanisms may prove to discourage new members from joiningnot only the TIG, but AEA as well. I encourage caution in this area, forobviously the Topical Interest Groups are a popular service with themembership, and one that they rightly expect for their $25. I encouragethe Board to continue the practice ofgiving each TI G a working budget,for to require TIG leaders to pay up-front costs and await reimbursementwould be an additional burden to those who already dedicate a largeportion of their time and efforts.

Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues who for the last threeyears have supported my efforts in the continued growth of our TopicalInterest Group. In particular, my thanks to Ken Bickel, who for threeyears has supported my efforts, despite my occasional urge to move on.To my successor Steven Jung, I hope that I can lend you as muchsupport, and wish you and other TIG members luck in continuing theactivities of this Topical Interest Group.

Recent and ForthcomingVolumes of New Directionsfor Program Evaluation

Mark W. Lipsey, Editor-in-ChiefClaremont Graduate School

#36 December, 1987

Jeri Nowakowski, Editor. The Client's Perspective ojEvaluation.Jeri Nowakowski, "Role Expectations of Evaluation Clients"Walter J. Gunn, "Client Concerns and Strategies in Evaluation Studies"Marvin C. AIkin & Michael Q. Patton, "Working Both Sides of the

Street"Joy Rogers, "Using Evaluation in Controversial Settings: The Client's

Perspective"