Getting Better at Doing Good: A Toolkit for Measuring NGO Progress

A Cardiff University academic has launched an innovative toolkit that will help non-government organisations (NGOs) to measure the effectiveness of their work. Professor Gordon Cumming developed the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) resource to encourage charities, voluntary groups, community organisations and social enterprises to evaluate their activities and collect evidence of the excellent work they are doing overseas and in the UK. The free website can be used on a laptop or mobile phone, at home or out in the field. It includes templates, worked examples, a glossary, interactive exercises and a compendium of research methods from key informant interviews through to focus groups and participant observation. To make it more accessible, there will be video tutorials in English, Welsh, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. Professor Cumming, who is based in the School of Modern Languages, has been working with French, British and African NGOs and volunteer organisations for more than 15 years. He said: "The importance of monitoring and evaluation for NGOs cannot be overstated.