Discussion
Quasi-experimental designs are often used when conducting program evaluations on non-profit organizations. Examples of such organizations are police stations, fire departments, emergency rooms, and community health clinics. It is not possible to randomly assign people to go to a specific emergency room or community health clinic as this is dependent on where someone is when an emergency occurs or where someone lives- which cannot be randomly assigned. As such, a true experiment is not possible. Quasi-experiments allow researchers to collect data without random assignment. Information gained from quasi-experiments as part of program evaluation can help to improve patient care, cost-efficiency, patient satisfaction, timeliness of services, job satisfaction, and so on.
Pretend you have a grant to create a quasi-experiment to do a program evaluation on a non-profit.
1. What non-profit(s) would you focus on? Why?
2. What would be your research question?
3. What data would you gather? Why?
4. Would you want to use an employee or external consultant to collect the data? Why?
5. What are possible limitations to this study?
Example 1
Just recently my husband and I attended "The Patriot Awards Gala for Medal of Honor Recipients." There we met 41 out of 71 living veterans who received the Medal of Honor. Along with meeting the recipients, my husband and I met veterans who started the non-profit organization, Operation: 23 to Zero. This is a group that started out going pro-military events and raising awareness for veteran and military suicide. This organization also receives donations, which goes to veteran's in need or who are struggling with paying bills, finding jobs, etc.
Dave who is the founder of this organization, started talking with me about how he can grow this to be able to reach out and help more veterans. To then have a discussion where I could apply what I was learning to a real life situation is so interesting.
The research question I would use would be, what programs could be implemented in Operation: 23 to Zero to continue spreading awareness of veteran suicide and to more effectively assess and helping to prevent veteran suicide for residents of Minnesota.
I would gather data by having the volunteers assess how many veterans are helped and how the veterans are able to turn their life around.
I would also gather data but the events to see how many people attend and sign up as volunteers or donate. Along with that, I would want to gather data on the donations and what resources are needed to successfully and efficiently help the veterans.
I would want to use an employee/volunteer because this organization is still in the beginning stages and does not have the funds to hire a consultant.
Possible limitations are that there aren't "employees" yet, just volunteers. Another limitation is this organization is still in the learning stages so they are just beginning to grow and work out the kink. Programs and processes are still being perfected and created.
totally forgot to add that in, I'm sorry!
I thought at first needs assessment since this organization is in the developing stages, however I feel like it is already known that a program like this is needed since 23 veterans a day commit suicide. With that said, I was thinking more of process evaluation, outcome evaluation, and then later when it is more developed efficiency evaluation.
Reply
Example 2
Pretend you have a grant to create a quasi-experiment to do a program evaluation on a non-profit.
What non-profit(s) would you focus on? Why?
My non-profit of choice is the Relay for Life organization in Bakersfield because we participate every year in the walk for Cancer and thousands of dollars are raised to help Cancer research and the improvement for lives of Cancer patients.
What would be your research question?
How is the money that is being raised being allocated and how can the dollars be tracked to show that lives are truly being impacted?
What data would you gather? Why?
I would gather all data related to the raising of funds and how and to whom they are allocated. The need for disclosure to ensure that the people in need are being helped would be vital. The need to know what people in the organization are being paid can also lend insight on whether or not people are being paid correctly or simply overpaying themselves as other scandals have been exposed about non-profit organizations such as Wounded Warriors (Fox News, 2016). We would need sources for funds, how they are acquired, where and how they are disbursed and all internal financials such as tax filing, purchase logs, expense sheets and salaries of all employee's. This data would offer insight on whether the money they receive is being allocated in a manner that coincides with their cause of helping cancer patients, and anyone enduring issues related to cancer.
Would you want to use an employee or external consultant to collect the data? Why?
The internal information should be gathered and organized by an independent group that handles audits and how money is being managed.
We would need an independent group to examine the information for accuracy and to ensure that funds are being managed appropriately given how much money is donated annually. A simple interrupted time-sensitive design, "a dependent variable is repeatedly measured at periodic intervals before and after a treatment" (Passer, M. 2014. P.333) would be used to evaluate the process and the outcome and efficiency of the organization and its use of the funds.
What are possible limitations to this study?
Some limitations are the accuracy of the book keeping practices given the number of events they attend and the type of collection processes that lack a proper system for collection. Cash is sometimes hard to track. The other possible limitations are financial backing for a long-term review of the organization due to the manpower needed for the study and review.
Reference:
Passer, M. (05/2014). Research Methods, 1st Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved
from https://kaplan.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781464198991/
Fox News. (3/2016). Wounded Warrior Project's top execs fired amid lavish spending scandal.
Retreived from: wounded-warrior-project-reportedly-fires-top-executives-amid-spending-controversy.