How to Use RECO Resources

Resources on community organizing and evaluation are sorted into three major categories:

  1. Theoretical approaches to evaluation – perspectives on the need for evaluation and its role in strengthening organizing and social change efforts.
  2. Tools or methodologies – specific processes that can help organizations implement evaluations of organizing.
  3. Case studies – stories of efforts to evaluate organizing work that illuminate key approaches and challenges that foundations and nonprofits may also be facing.

Click on the category to find relevant hardcopy and web resources. Resources that apply to more than one category are included in all appropriate sections. 

For each resource, the following information is provided:

Title: The name of the document or project.  Some of the resources are documents while others are projects of organizations.

Resource Type: We note whether the resource is listed under additional categories.

Author(s): The name of the author, which may be an individual or an organization.

Publication Information: Links to the resource as well as publication information, noting where to find the resource as well as whether there is a fee for that resource.

Pages Referenced:  A notation of the relevant pages of longer documents.

Summary: A brief description of what the resource is (e.g., book, website, report, occasional paper, article, tool kit, etc.), main content, and, in some cases, who it was designed for.  This sorting should allow groups to more quickly access the resources that speak to their particular evaluation needs.

Detailed Description:  A listing of additional information about the contents of the resource, including any key findings or lessons learned, where appropriate. Please note that the length of the summary is in no way a reflection on the value of the information contained in the resource. 

Core Organizing Components Emphasized:  While some resources relate to many or all of the core organizing components, this section lists the major components emphasized within the resource.  This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all of the components included in the document.