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About
Black Walnut Consulting
Research & Evaluation Services
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About Bloom
About Rooted
Retreat Offerings
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About
Black Walnut Consulting
Research & Evaluation Services
Harvest Retreats
About Bloom
About Rooted
Retreat Offerings
Retreat Partnerships
Freelance Writing
Book a Gig
Fiverr Covers
Blog
Contact
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BLACK WALNUT CONSULTING




PROGRAM EVALUATION

Evaluations should be useful to the people that matter the most: on the ground
staff and the people and communities they serve. My goal is to empower you and
your team to become evaluative thinkers who strategically use data to inform
programmatic improvements, secure funding, and grow. I offer a range of program
evaluation services for mission-driven organizations, as well as expertly
facilitated trainings using the I do - we do - you do model to unlock the little
evaluator inside everyone; yes, even you.


MENU OF SERVICES

 

EVALUATION FUNDAMENTALS

The strongest foundation for program evaluation starts with your mission,
vision, and values, logic model, theory of change, and strategic plan. Don’t
have those in place? Have them, but only because your grant application required
it?Could they use some work? Writing about ourselves and our work is
challenging. Luckily, you’ve found me I’d be happy to support you.

TOOL DESIGN

Designing the perfect survey or interview guide can take time and effort away
from your other responsibilities. We don’t need to be experts in everything.
Allow me to step in to create the data collection tools you need to measure your
outcomes and goals. With dynamic training, you and your staff will be equipped
with the skills necessary to implement and collect your own data with ease.

REPORTING

My worst nightmare is a long evaluation report that sits on a shelf collecting
dust, goes unread in your inbox forever, or only helps the funder, not you and
your team. You provide the data, I provide the report. My writing style is
compelling and easy to understand, harnessing my years of experience supporting
communications, marketing, and development teams.

 

FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

Data is just information. In that case, you’ve got data… each website, app, and
platform you use comes with a data dashboard. You’ve asked clients for feedback
in-person, via email, and maybe even a survey or two. You have the information,
but what do you do with it? That’s where I come in! Let’s harness your data and
make it work for you. I’ll help you ask the right questions to get the data to
tell us its stories. Working together to ask the right questions on a quarterly
or bi-yearly basis we’ll turn you into a powerful data wizard, using what you
already have to improve & grow. After all, what’s the point of having big goals
if you aren’t measuring accomplishing them?

 

CAPACITY BUILDING

I have supported 200+ nonprofits and foundations through dynamic, customized
training resulting in the organizations I support improving their data culture
and quality. Learn more about my facilitation, training, and capacity building
services.

Let’s Get to Work!
 

DATA ANALYSIS

You’ve collected your data, but you need someone with the training and expertise
to make sense of it. No formal reports here! All you need is someone to make
sense of all these spreadsheets, standard (and unhelpful) Google Forms, or
SurveyMonkey canned results. You’ve come to the right place! Send us your data
securely, and we will clean it up, run some fancy stats, and send it back to you
with bulleted, high-level insights in a beautifully formatted document of your
choice.




WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“Dara is what everyone looks for in a colleague. She's a positive force,
responsive and truly cares about the work she is doing and the people it
touches. Give Dara a project, and you can be certain that it will get done on
time, under budget and be of the highest quality.”

— Nancy Levesque, Communications Director

"Dara is an incredibly skilled evaluator and data storyteller. Though I have met
a lot of evaluators over my career, I think that Dara has unique strengths in
interdisciplinary collaboration, capacity building and community engagement, all
which make her evaluation work more meaningful and actionable for stakeholders."

— Alicia Vooris, Social Science Analyst


 * DARA LAINE MURRAY
   
   PRINCIPAL AND FOUNDER
   
   For over 10 years, Dara Murray (she/her) has supported mission-driven
   organizations to examine findings and incorporate insights as part of
   iterative program planning. Building on her experience as a national trainer,
   she has helped 200+ teams promote a unified culture of reflection, learning,
   and data-informed decision-making. Dara is good at summing up results and
   presenting them in a way that is easy to understand. She works with both
   internal and external partners to package technical findings so that they can
   be understood by a wider audience.
   
   An expert in afterschool and summer education programs with a career spanning
   back to her first job as a Girl Scout Camp Aide, Dara draws on a variety of
   experiences working with youth-serving programs in her approach. Dara's
   career was built on the opportunities she got from low-cost and free
   after-school and summer programs. This makes her especially interested in
   working with youth-serving programs, schools, and education leaders who work
   in historically and systemically marginalized and underserved communities
   with an asset-based and equity-focused approach.
   
   Her colleagues describe her as a convener; motivating, coaching,
   facilitating, and engaging expertise across divisions and throughout ranks.
   When she’s not researching or writing, Dara loves to hike around her adopted
   home of Baltimore, play with her nieces in New Jersey, garden, and plan
   amazing vacations for family and friends and nourishing retreats for women
   across the country.


 * MARGARET GILLESPIE
   
   JUNIOR ASSOCIATE OF RESEARCH AND DESIGN
   
   Margaret Gillespie (she/they) is a Junior Associate of Research and Design at
   Black Walnut Consulting. They are also a graduate candidate at the Harvard
   Graduate School of Education, where they will earn their degree in Learning
   Design, Innovation, and Technology with a concentration in Identity, Power,
   and Justice in Education.
   
   Margaret went to Penn State University and got a Bachelor of Science in
   Education with an emphasis on English education. Before Black Walnut
   Consulting, Margaret worked in higher education enrollment and taught
   literature in New Orleans and Harlem. While teaching, Margaret led students
   through social-emotional learning sessions, designed professional development
   programming to combat education inequity, and taught LGBTQ+ history to
   student organizations.
   
   Along with their experience in the classroom, Margaret served as a curriculum
   writer, mentored K–12 educators, and sat on the founding board of an LGBTQ+
   educators’ organization working to create inclusive classrooms for all
   students. Margaret is passionate about educational equity and creating
   accessible educational resources and services.
   
   In their free time, Margaret volunteers counseling youth, spends time with
   loved ones, and enjoys creative tasks such as making art and home improvement
   projects.


 * MELANIE SMITH
   
   JUNIOR ASSOCIATE OF DATA AND RESEARCH
   
   Melanie (she/her) is a Junior Associate of Data and Research at Black Walnut
   Consulting.
   
   With 10+ years of experience in the education field, Melanie has led over
   eight teams of 20 adults in using data to inform decision-making and drive
   instructional practices at the classroom, school, and district levels.
   
   Melanie is passionate about ensuring equitable practices are at the forefront
   of her work. She focuses on building and maintaining community, empowering
   individuals to make systemic and sustainable change, and disrupting systems
   of power and inequality.
   
   She has worked as a math instructional coach, teacher, student mentor, tutor,
   and teacher.
   
   Melanie holds degrees in education, psychology, and linguistics from Johns
   Hopkins University and Emory University. Melanie views data analyses as
   exciting puzzles, taking the time to sort out the pieces while focusing on
   both the big picture and the minute details all at once. With great data
   comes great responsibility, so Melanie approaches all of her analyses with
   curiosity and integrity, using tools like Excel, Google Sheets, Tableau, and
   SQL to tell nuanced stories.
   
   In her free time, Melanie loves international travel. Her most recent trip
   was to Panama with her family. She also runs a photography business based out
   of Baltimore, MD, and is a budding puzzle influencer on social media (it's
   not a thing yet, but it will be).


IT ALL BEGINS WITH AN EMAIL.

Contact Me

Clients, Partners, and Collaborators


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