Chari Smith believes evaluation should be accessible, practical, and usable. She founded Evaluation into Action to help nonprofit professionals create realistic and meaningful program evaluation processes. She has taught several workshops helping nonprofit professionals understand the value and use of program evaluation.
Chari is a dedicated member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). In 2024, she served as President of the Oregon Program Evaluators Network (OPEN) and remains an active member. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Portland’s Pamplin School of Business, teaching in the Nonprofit MBA program. Chari is the author of Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple: Get Your Data. Show Your Impact. Improve Your Programs., a practical guide that walks readers through the process of program evaluation, step by step. Learn more about her book here.
As a Research Associate with Evaluation into Action since 2011, Christine enjoys seeing the results that nonprofits can achieve by using data effectively to reach organizational goals and improve programs over time. Christine applies her keen eye for detail to researching, analyzing, and communicating best practices and recommended evaluation methods to help organizations improve decision making and more effectively use resources. She has a depth of experience in the fields of education, health care, information technology, and the arts. Christine holds a BA in Sociology from Loyola University of Chicago and an MBA from the University of Arizona.
We are grateful to work with such a diverse group of nonprofit organizations and funders across a wide range of disciplines.
Our service coordinators play an instrumental role in helping our residents maintain their housing stability and thrive in their communities, and we needed a way to measure and communicate and the many positive impacts these programs have. With the support of Evaluation into Action, we developed the tools and processes needed to turn our data into valuable insights and inform the strategies we employ to continue making a difference in the communities we serve.
Kurstin Marriott, Resident Services Manager, Northwest Real Estate Capital Corporation
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