Abstract
Philosophical groundings in the nature of evidence underpin small non-profits’ perceptions and relationship with the evaluation orthodoxy. However, evidence is an abstruse concept, defined as something that provides justification to warrant a claim or conclusion, and is understood differently depending on ones’ ontological and epistemological views of reality and knowledge. This chapter outlines the ways in which evaluation interplays with the hierarchy of evidence by providing an overview of the history of evaluation, and noting forms of evaluation of particular value to community development and small-sized non-profit organisations.
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Kelly, L.M. (2021). The Story of Evaluation. In: Evaluation in Small Development Non-Profits. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58979-0_2
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