Three recommendations for sport organizations when engaging in evaluation

The sport sector considers evaluation an essential organizational practice. Through evaluation, sport organizations can gain insights and solicit feedback about their programs. Evaluation can also inform decision-making, guide program improvements, and build stakeholders’ value and advocacy for programming (Holt et al., 2016; Shaikh et al., 2020). Despite its value, evaluation also challenges many sport decision-makers,…

Job insecurity

For coaches, job insecurity can lead to reduced job and life satisfaction, decreased well-being, and burnout. Sport organizations can support the well-being of coaches through employment opportunities that are contractually secure and by limiting the number of temporary coaching contracts.

Preventing fraud in community sport

Financial fraud can have devastating effects on a sport organization’s service provision, reputation, and long-term viability. Research suggests a three-tiered approach to fraud prevention, including training for leaders on financial management to understand the risks; sound financial management practices; and early detection systems.

Academic legacies from the 2022 Canada Games

The Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games are inspiring cross-disciplinary research at Brock University. Projects range from an examination of the incidence of injury and illness experienced by Games athletes, to an immersive visual and aural project exploring the links between watersports and regional ecosystems, to a storytelling repository and archive of 2022 Games materials. Read…

Sustainable Development Goals in sport

“The Sustainable Development Goals, and the global movement to use them to measure the impacts of sport, can help governments and sport organizations better understand the impacts of their current work, as well as guiding future investments and initiatives.”– Vicki Walker, Director General at Sport Canada. For more information about how the SDGs are informing…

Pandemic curling

“This is just one huge exercise in risk management… the health risks, financial risk, reputation risk, and compliance risk. It’s sort of risk management on steroids.” In the SIRCuit, Curling Canada CEO Katherine Henderson shares learnings and insight on hosting key national and international events during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trend reports

Trend reports can be a valuable source of insight for sport organization boards of directors who are working to develop their strategic foresight skills. Reflecting on emerging developments in consumer behaviour and attitudes, government priorities, and industry innovation can help ensure your organization stays relevant into the future.

Building capacity for evaluation with students and volunteers

An essential part of improving sport service delivery is program evaluation. Program evaluation allows sport organizations to understand how their programs or initiatives work in different ways. However, many organizations receive insufficient training or lack the capacity (staff, funding or time) to engage in evaluative work (Carman & Fredericks, 2010).  One way that sport organizations can boost capacity for evaluation is to involve students and volunteers. Indeed, there are many examples of graduate students partnering with…

Coping with climate change

In recent years, extreme weather conditions have affected a range of sport events, including tennis’s 2020 Australian Open (heat and smoke), the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan (Typhoon Hagibis), and the 2019 IAAF World Track and Field championships in Qatar (extreme heat). Intentional discussions with board members and staff about potential climate hazards is…

Gender-neutral language

Using gender-neutral language throughout policies, procedures, and communications is one way for sport organizations to be more inclusive of LGBTQI2S people and communities. Phrases like, “he or she” or “both genders,” can easily be updated to “they/them/their” and “all genders” to become more inclusive.