Who are community leaders, evaluators, and funders? Why should you understand the interests of these groups? When should you understand the interests of these groups? What are the interests of these groups? How do you determine interests? Your group wants to understand how its work is going. Community members want to know whether the effort addresses their priorities, and funders may want evidence of progress and responsible resource use. Evaluation can help answer these questions. Planning together makes it easier to identify what people need to learn, choose appropriate methods, and connect findings with decisions. An important planning step is identifying the people involved in or affected by the evaluation and understanding their interests. This section focuses on community leaders, evaluators, and funders. Program participants, residents, staff, and others affected by the initiative also need meaningful opportunities to shape the evaluation, whether or not they hold a formal leadership role. Designing the evaluation together can reveal shared priorities and differences that need discussion. One evaluation may serve several purposes, but it may not answer every question equally well. Agree on the most important questions, intended uses, and practical limits before collecting information, and make those choices transparent. By needs and interests, we mean what people want to understand, the decisions they need to make, and the outcomes they consider important. These may include improving services, identifying unequal access, learning from implementation, or deciding how to allocate resources. People within the same group may have different priorities, so ask about their interests rather than assuming them. Begin by considering why people want an evaluation. Common reasons include: Being accountable to community members, participants, and those who provide resources Helping organizations receiving grants learn from and improve their work Improving funding decisions and support for community priorities Assessing program quality, accessibility, outcomes, and unintended effects Planning, adapting, and implementing programs Sharing useful approaches and the conditions needed to apply them elsewhere Building knowledge and strengthening the community's ability to use evidence Any person or group may have several of these interests. Community leaders may want credible evidence about outcomes, evaluators may want findings that inform practical improvements, and funders may want to understand implementation challenges. Their interests can overlap. They may also differ in the decisions they face, the time they can contribute, and the formats in which they need information. You do not need to be an evaluation specialist to help choose useful questions or identify community priorities. You do need a clear understanding of how findings will be used and what evidence is needed. Bring in technical support when the design, analysis, or interpretation requires skills the team does not yet have. Who are community leaders, evaluators, and funders? Community leaders Community leaders may include residents, youth leaders, organizers, committee members, staff, administrators, public agency representatives, and members of governing boards. Leadership can be formal or informal. These individuals bring different experiences and levels of familiarity with evaluation, and they may want information to guide planning, improve services, or advocate for change. Their involvement should complement direct participation by affected residents rather than replace it. Evaluators Evaluators plan and carry out activities to answer questions about an initiative's implementation, outcomes, or value. They may be community researchers, program staff, independent consultants, or people working in universities and other organizations. Their roles should match their skills and the evaluation's requirements. Professional learning resources include the American Evaluation Association and its Collaborative, Participatory, and Empowerment Evaluation Topical Interest Group. Evaluators contribute methods for gathering and interpreting credible information while learning from community knowledge and experience. Funders Funders are individuals or organizations that provide financial support. They may include donors, foundations, government agencies, and other funding partners. Their evaluation expectations vary: some require particular measures or reports, while others help partners develop an approach together. Funders may want to understand progress, resource use, community outcomes, and what kinds of support would make the initiative more effective. Why should you understand the interests of these groups? Different people need different information to make decisions. A resident may want to know why a service is difficult to access, a program coordinator may need to understand staffing demands, and a funder may need evidence to inform continued support. Understanding these questions helps the team choose an appropriate scope, methods, and reporting plan. People outside the initiative may have limited information about its activities and results. Those participating in or supporting the work may also see different parts of it. Evaluation can bring these perspectives together to examine what is working, what needs to change, and what remains uncertain. Include people who experience the program's effects as well as those who can provide funding or institutional support. Information is useful when it helps answer a relevant question. For example, counting the number of people served can help describe program reach and staffing needs. It does not, by itself, show whether participants' circumstances improved or whether the program contributed to that improvement. Clarifying the intended use of information helps the team distinguish activities, outputs, and outcomes and avoid collecting data without a clear purpose. Connect people's interests with evaluation questions and appropriate methods. Whose interests and experiences should the evaluation address? What decisions do they face, and what information would help? What evaluation questions will guide the inquiry? What methods and tools can provide credible answers within the available resources? Meaningful involvement can strengthen collaboration and the ability to use findings. It can also reveal competing priorities before they disrupt the work. Understanding those priorities helps the team allocate resources, explain tradeoffs, and design an evaluation that supports learning without allowing the most influential group to determine every question. When should you understand the interests of these groups? Identify interested and affected people at the beginning of evaluation planning. Invite them to help define the purpose, questions, and intended uses before major design decisions are settled. Include people who may be affected by changes based on the findings, even if they are not currently involved in the initiative. Revisit interests at agreed points and when circumstances change, such as a new funding requirement, a change in community priorities, or an unexpected finding. Adapt the plan when appropriate, documenting why changes were made and how they affect the evidence or comparisons. A new interest should prompt discussion rather than an automatic change that undermines the evaluation's purpose. What are the interests of these groups? How do you identify the people to involve? Begin with a shared list of people and organizations involved in, affected by, or expected to use the evaluation. Ask community partners to help identify perspectives missing from the team's existing networks. Record initial ideas about people's interests as questions to explore, not as conclusions about what they must want. Members of the initiative may reasonably want the evaluation to support their own learning and improvement. That is an important purpose. At the same time, participants, residents, partners, and funders may have questions about access, outcomes, resource use, or unintended effects. Consider these interests together so that the evaluation reflects both the initiative's needs and its responsibilities to the community. Also consider differences in power, access, and ability to participate. People who rely on a service may hesitate to criticize it in front of staff, while residents who cannot attend meetings may be left out entirely. Develop a broad initial list, then agree on appropriate roles. Some people may help make evaluation decisions, others may contribute information or review findings, and others may mainly need access to results. Explain how each form of participation can influence the work. To identify people and groups to involve, ask: Who funds, supports, or makes decisions about the initiative, and how might they use the findings? Who will conduct the evaluation, and whose knowledge and skills are needed to do it well? Who participates in, collaborates with, or is affected by the initiative, including people who face barriers to access or have been left out of earlier discussions? Once you have identified people to involve, ask about their priorities directly. The following descriptions offer starting points for discussion. They are not fixed expectations for everyone in a particular role. Community leaders Community leaders and residents may need information that is: Clear and accessible: Explain the purpose, methods, findings, and limitations in plain language. Offer relevant languages and formats, and make supporting detail available to people who want it. Focused and timely: Organize information around the decisions people face and provide it when they can use it. Respect their time while preserving the detail needed to interpret findings responsibly. Responsive: Address community-defined priorities and explain what the evidence can contribute to decisions about the initiative's future. Grounded in context: Describe accomplishments, challenges, resources, and surrounding conditions. Examine differences in experiences and outcomes rather than assuming the initiative works the same way for everyone. Useful for action: Identify practical options for improvement, explain the evidence behind them, and clarify what further information or resources may be needed. Evaluators Evaluators need a clear purpose, suitable evidence, and working arrangements that support credible inquiry. Shared understanding: Evaluators need input from participants, residents, staff, community leaders, and funders about the questions that matter, how the initiative operates, and how findings will be used. Appropriate and dependable information: Evaluators need data suited to the questions, with clear definitions and information about gaps, quality, and limitations. They also need realistic timelines and resources for collection and analysis. Clear responsibilities and respectful collaboration: Agree on access to information, privacy protections, participation procedures, and how findings will be reviewed and reported. Cooperation should support honest inquiry, including the reporting of unfavorable results. Funders Funders may need: Clear and timely reports: Provide information about implementation, progress, challenges, resource use, and support needs in time to inform funding decisions. Agree on reporting expectations early and coordinate requests to reduce unnecessary burden. Credible evidence of outcomes and contribution: Explain what changed, for whom, and what the evidence suggests about the initiative's contribution. Distinguish observed outcomes from demonstrated causal effects, and report limitations alongside accomplishments. How do you determine interests? Use conversations, interviews, surveys, or group discussions to learn what people want to understand and how they expect to use the evaluation. Ask about priorities, concerns, decision deadlines, and preferred ways to participate. Discuss differences early, and document which interests the evaluation will address, which fall outside its scope, and why. Questions that can help identify evaluation interests include: What do you most need to learn about the initiative's strengths, limitations, or value? Which outcomes matter to you, and what would meaningful progress look like? What implementation challenges or barriers should the evaluation examine? What should we learn about participants' experiences, access to services, and interactions with staff? What unexpected benefits, harms, or differences in outcomes should we explore? What decisions will you use the findings to make, when do you need them, and how would you like to participate in the evaluation? Review the answers for shared priorities and important differences. For example, a resident leader and an evaluator may both want to understand why participation drops after the first month. That shared question can guide further discussion about evidence and methods. Similar interests create opportunities to collaborate, but they do not mean everyone will agree on the interpretation or recommended action. Ways to identify and discuss interests include: Interviews: Speak with people across relevant roles and experiences rather than relying on one person to represent an entire group. Use clear, open questions and ask for examples. Provide private opportunities to raise concerns that people may not feel comfortable discussing publicly. Surveys: Use a brief, accessible questionnaire to identify priorities and invite additional comments. Offer appropriate languages and participation formats. When interpreting results, consider who responded, who did not, and whether important perspectives are missing. Phone or remote conversations: Offer scheduled calls or other accessible options for people who cannot attend in person. Use consistent core questions while allowing relevant follow-up. Ask about communication and privacy preferences, and explain how responses will be recorded and used. Facilitated group discussions: Bring people together to explore possible questions, compare priorities, and discuss tradeoffs. Use facilitation that gives everyone opportunities to contribute, including written or small-group input. Record disagreements and unresolved questions as well as areas of agreement. Check in during the evaluation and after findings are shared to learn whether the process and results met people's needs. A survey is one option; conversations, a reflection meeting, or feedback on a report may be more appropriate. Use what you learn to improve communication, follow-through, and future evaluations. Decisions about improvement may involve small adjustments or substantial changes, depending on the findings and their consequences. Agree on who will act, what resources are needed, and when progress will be reviewed. Keep a record of how evidence and community priorities informed the decision. With a documented set of priorities and intended uses, you can select an evaluation team and develop methods for gathering useful information. Confirm the scope, responsibilities, timeline, and reporting plan with the people involved. Return to these agreements as the work progresses so that the evaluation remains relevant and feasible. In Summary Understanding the interests of community leaders, evaluators, funders, and affected residents helps an evaluation ask useful questions and support informed decisions. Identify these interests early, discuss differences openly, and revisit them as conditions change. Shared planning works best when community participation has real influence and findings are reported honestly, including results that challenge expectations. Contributor Eric Wadud Marcelo Vilela Resources Online Resources CDC Evaluation Resources provides a list of resources for evaluation, as well as links to key professional associations and key journals. Developing an Effective Evaluation Plan is a workbook provided by the CDC. In addition to information on designing an evaluation plan, this book also provides worksheets as a step-by-step guide. Evaluating Your Community-Based Program [pdf] is a handbook designed by the American Academy of Pediatrics covering a variety of topics related to evaluation. McCormick Foundation Evaluation Guide is a guide to planning an organization’s evaluation, with several chapters specifically dedicated to gathering information and using it to improve the organization. The Collective Impact Forums podcast episode Measuring What Matters With Community-Led Monitoring speaks with the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition on supporting data gathering and analysis centered on and led by community members. The Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation is a handbook provided by the Administration for Children and Families with detailed answers to nine big questions regarding program evaluation. User-Friendly Handbook for Program Evaluation is a guide to evaluations provided by the National Science Foundation. This guide includes practical information on quantitative and qualitative methodologies in evaluations. Print Resources Council on Foundations. (1993) Evaluation for foundations. San Francisco: CA. Jossey-Bass Publishers. Fawcett, S., Francisco, V., Paine, A., Lewis, R., Richter, K., Harris, K., Williams, E., Berkely, J., Schultz, J., Fisher, J., & Lopez, C. (1994). Work group evaluation handbook: evaluating and supporting community initiatives for health and development. Lawrence, KS: Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development, University of Kansas. Patton, M. (1996). Utilization-focused evaluation: The new century text. London. Sage Publications.
