| A unique partnership
between Duquesne University and The McWilliams
Group, a professional services firm specializing
in the business of philanthropy, will take advantage
of the university’s expertise in the field
of program evaluation to benefit non-profit organizations.
The McWilliams Group will enlist Duquesne graduate
students, faculty and research associates, marshalling
the collective brainpower of the Department of
Educational Foundation and Leadership’s
resources, to design custom evaluation and measurement
tools and methodologies, perform research and
present findings and recommendations for a wide
range of projects that benefit minority and other
nonprofit causes. The firm is dedicated to enhancing
the effectiveness and impact of both investors
in charitable giving – corporations, foundations,
individuals - and nonprofit service providers.
Duquesne is well positioned to provide the needed
expertise. In addition to offering a master’s
degree and certificate programs in evaluation,
the Department of Foundations and Leadership is
home to the Center for Evaluation, Research and
Policy Analysis, as well as the Graduate Evaluation
Diversity Internship Program, a collaboration
with the American Evaluation Association designed
to open up the evaluation profession to graduate
students of color.
Professional Evaluators combine technical knowledge
in a given subject with objective quantitative
and qualitative information gathering techniques,
and that expertise is indispensable when organizations
want to judge the effectiveness of products, personnel,
policies and programs. More than ever, non-profits
are expected by donors and other constituents
to demonstrate the impact of their efforts.
According to Dr. Rodney Hopson, chair of the
Department of Foundations and Leadership, joining
forces with the McWilliams Group holds great promise.
“This demonstrates the power of public-private
partnerships to harness the combined talents of
the academic community, including those of students
of diverse backgrounds, for the greater good,”
Hopson said. “The potential of this work
and this partnership is far-reaching.”
Dr. Paul A. McWilliams, chairman of The McWilliams
Group, agrees and stresses that the new partnership
can help improve the effectiveness of philanthropic
programs.
“Measurement is our mantra,” McWilliams
said. “For a non-profit organization to
grow and thrive, it must think and act like a
business, so a robust program of measurement has
become central to everything we do.”
Duquesne’s work with The McWilliams Group
will range from evaluating existing market research
and presenting findings to creating evaluation
programs and data collection instruments from
scratch.
Duquesne University
Duquesne is a private, coeducational university
offering an extensive selection of undergraduate
and graduate degree programs across 10 schools
of study. Duquesne is consistently ranked among
the nation’s top Catholic universities for
its award-winning faculty and 128-year tradition
of academic excellence.
The McWilliams Group
The McWilliams Group develops and implements strategies
and solutions necessary for philanthropic organizations
to meet their mission-driven goals and ensure
that their efforts are effective, efficient and
yield a maximum return on their investment.
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