Monitoring and Evaluation for NGO
What is M&E?
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a combination of data collection, analysis and assessment that indicates to what extent an intervention has reached its expected objectives. Technically, monitoring can be defined as a long-term systematic process that collects information in regard to the progress of project implementation. On the other hand, evaluation is a time-specific assessment to see whether a project has met its goals and delivered planned expectations at a specific time — usually at the end of the project implementation.
Why M&E is important for NGOs?
NGOs are typically mission-driven advocacy or service organizations in the nonprofit sector. In recent years, NGOs have had a critical role in improving life for the most marginalized populations across the world. Nowadays, they are assumed as key contributors to the global efforts to achieve sustainable development goals. Like other development partners, NGOs can improve the social impact of their work and assess their overall performance by employing effective M&E systems.
Additionally, NGOs rely on financial resources coming from donors from private individuals, the private sector, for-profit companies, philanthropic foundations, grants from federal or state or local governments. Although NGOs may benefit from different sources of finance, they all need reporting requirements to ensure their investments generate targeted social impact and their partner properly addresses accountability and transparency concerns. Thus, a well-functioning M&E system:
Provides the consolidated source of information displaying project progress
Creates reports to demonstrate transparency and accountability
Provides paths for learning and improvements through unmasking the failures and mistakes
Builds expertise and knowledge and allows for lessons to be shared more easily and frequently
Offers a basis for testing and questioning the assumptions and risks
Improves the process of planning and policy-making by incorporating lessons learned in the new policies and practices
How M&E benefits different stakeholders
Beneficiaries: Follow-up data collection can keep the connection with beneficiaries and strengthen the impact of the intervention and promise positive lasting results. Also, it can convey the message that the organization really cares about beneficiaries, their expectations and actual outcomes. Beneficiaries can also benefit from future improved programs resulting from the assessment of the current intervention.
Executive management: M&E works as a performance management tool determining the strategic changes that need to be made. Not only does M&E help assess the project outcomes against the set targets, but also it can control resource allocation and direct resources toward more successful units, enhancing the overall performance of the organization. The entire process of collecting, disseminating and utilizing data can improve internal operations and hence add value to the organization.
Funders: Financial resources flow to where evidence of impact suggests. A well-planned M&E system can open up that flow because it demonstrates impact credibility and provides donors with a more transparent picture of how much impact can be yielded per every dollar they invest. Moreover, M&E exercise is a mechanism to keep the current donors satisfied and encourage them for more collaboration on future projects. To do this, donors need to understand how an NGO is administering a given fund or implementing a funded project to decide on their future donations. Hence, M&E can generate a comprehensive picture of what an NGO is performing and portray achievements and barriers to be incorporated in the next phases of project design/ implementation. In fact, M&E serves the purpose of transparency as it provides means to communicate with donors and with the public throughout the implementation of the intervention.