You understand that you should have an evaluation plan because:
___It guides you through each step of the process of evaluation
___It helps you decide what sort of information you and your stakeholders really need
___It keeps you from wasting time gathering information that isn't needed
___It helps you identify the best possible methods and strategies for getting the needed information
___It helps you come up with a reasonable and realistic timeline for evaluation
___Most importantly, it will help you improve your initiative!
You understand who your project or initiative's stakeholders are:
___Community groups
___Grantmakers and funders
___University-based researchers
You have taken into consideration:
___What stakeholders want to know about the evaluation
___What decisions stakeholders need to make
___How stakeholders would use the data to inform decisions
When considering how to balance costs and benefits, you have asked yourself the following questions:
___What do you need to know?
___What is required by the community?
___What is required by funding?
You understand these four main steps to developing an evaluation plan:
___Clarify program objectives and goals
___Develop evaluation questions
___Develop evaluation methods
___Set up a timeline for evaluation activities
Clarify the objectives and goals of your initiative:
___Make a table of program components and elements
Develop evaluation questions:
___You understand the four main categories of evaluation questions:
- Planning and implementation issues
- Assessing attainment of objectives
- Impact on participants
- Impact on the community
___You have considered the best possible methods to answer those questions
Develop evaluation methods to best address those questions:
___You understand how to use the monitoring and feedback system's three main elements (process measures, outcome measures, and observational system)
___You understand how to use member surveys about the initiative (member survey of goals, member survey of process, and member survey of outcomes)
___You understand how to use the goal attainment report
___You understand how to use behavioral surveys
___You understand how to use interviews with key participants
___You know how to use community-level indicators of impact
Setting up a timeline for evaluation activities:
___You understand that you should begin right now, or at least at the beginning of the initiative
___You've outlined questions for each stage of development of the initiative
___You've completed a table listing: key evaluation questions, type of evaluation measures to be used to answer them, type of data collection, and experimental design .
___You've determined when you feel it's appropriate to provide feedback and reports
___You will provide feedback and reports at the end of the evaluation
___You will also provide periodic feedback and reports throughout the duration of the project or initiative
___You've decided when the evaluation will end
___You've mapped out a proposed evaluation timeline
Expected evaluation products:
___You will make a report that you can share with everyone involved which includes effects expected by shareholders, differences in the behaviors of key individuals, and differences in conditions in the community
___You've decided whether to also include specific tools (i.e., brief reports summarizing data), annual reports, quarterly or monthly reports from the monitoring system, and anything else that is mutually agreed upon between the organization and the evaluation team
Evaluation standards:
___You've decided what standards you will use to ensure an accurate and useful evaluation