Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Mary Kopczynski Winkler on Governance

Nonprofits face growing demands to demonstrate their impact. Their ability to report on program performance is essential to organizational legitimacy and financial survival. This report chronicles the evaluation experiences of four youth-serving nonprofits that participated in the East of the River Initiative, a multi-year effort to increase the capacity of agencies to assess their performance. We detail key successes and challenges with the goal of sparking a dialogue between nonprofits, funders, and technical assistance providers about the proper value of evaluation in the sector.

The work described in this report first provides suggested core indicators for 14 categories of nonprofit organizations and then expands the notion of common core indicators to a much wider variety of programs by suggesting a common framework of outcome indicators for all nonprofit programs. This can provide guidance to nonprofits as they figure out what to measure and how to do it and will work to ease the looming reporting nightmare that will occur unless a common framework for outcome measurement emerges.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) recognized the relationship between adult education and workforce development and the need for accountability in all literacy, training, and employment programs. Enacted as Title II of WIA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) required substantial changes in the operations of state and local adult education programs, including allocation of funds, accountability and performance measurement, and the relationship between adult education and one-stop delivery systems. This report synthesizes information from a survey of all state directors of adult education and site visits to nine local programs in five states. Findings relate primarily to the first 18 months of AEFLA implementation.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) recognized the relationship between adult education and workforce development and the need for accountability in all literacy, training, and employment programs. Enacted as Title II of WIA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) required substantial changes in the operations of state and local adult education programs, including allocation of funds, accountability and performance measurement, and the relationship between adult education and one-stop delivery systems. This report synthesizes information from a survey of all state directors of adult education and site visits to nine local programs in five states. Findings relate primarily to the first 18 months of AEFLA implementation.

Are you happy with public transportation in Howard County. Feel safe living in Arlington? Is your trash being picked up in a timely manner in Bowie? Everyone has personal stories about these things, but what evidence other than anecdotal do we have about how our local governments are performing overall? How about the more objective performance measurement? Well, in the District of Columbia, the mayor now keeps a scorecard. In Prince William County, there's the Annual Service Effort and Accomplishments Report. And in Montgomery County there's legislation and audit plans to measure performance.

[Washington Times] The Williams administration's Year 2000 Scorecard pushes Washington in the right direction—toward greater government accountability and better city services. For this, the mayor and his team deserve praise and support. But, as the mayor himself noted, there is room to build on this first step.