Rationality and Politics: What Really Goes on When Funders Evaluate the Performance of Fundees?

This article provides an in-depth case study of the process by which a funder evaluates the performance of a client nonprofit agency in the social services sector. The connection between the evaluation and the subsequent funding decision is also explored. A framework for uncovering the basic dimensions of the evaluation process is presented and applied to the evaluator-evaluatee relationship studied. Various points at which perceptions of the relationship got distorted are identified. The evaluation process was found to be a subtle and complex interaction of formally rational methods and nonformal subjective judgments. The implications of these findings for practical improvements to the evaluation process are discussed.