Lance Potter

Director of Evaluation

Portfolio

Lance Potter

Evaluation is part of the Portfolio Performance & Support Team and has two main functions. First, guiding improvement and accountability work within New Profit; we help the organization understand and improve support to our portfolio. Second, providing monitoring and evaluation assistance to New Profit’s portfolio organizations as they build evidence for accountability, learning, and improvement.

Lance has over 30 years’ experience in program evaluation, across a range of content areas.  He began his career in educational assessment, developing high-stakes examinations, and then in public health evaluation.  In the 1990s he helped to create the Corporation for National and Community Service, serving as its first Director of Evaluation. Following National Service, he conducted large-scale evaluations in the public and nonprofit sectors across many content areas with Westat, a multinational research and evaluation firm. Prior to  joining New Profit, he was a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, serving in multiple evaluation roles within the US Program. Lance has degrees in anthropology (BA, American University) and linguistics (MA/ABD University of Southern California). He has over a dozen peer-reviewed publications, presents regularly at national conferences, teaches and provides training in evaluation, and consults to non-profits and philanthropies.