Section 2. Providing Feedback to Improve the Initiative

This section is based on an article in the Work Group Evaluation Handbook: Evaluating and Supporting Community Initiatives for Health and Development by Stephen B. Fawcett, Adrienne Paine-Andrews, Vincent T. Francisco, Jerry Schultz, Kimber P. Richter, R.K. Lewis, E.L. Williams, K.J. Harris, Jannette Berkley, Jacqueline L. Fisher, and Christine M. Lopez of the Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

• What does providing evaluation feedback involve?

• Why provide feedback?

• When should you provide feedback?

• How should you provide feedback?

What does providing evaluation feedback involve?

Providing evaluation feedback means sharing findings with people involved in or affected by an initiative and discussing what those findings mean for the work. This includes participants, community members, staff, volunteers, leaders, and governing board members. Depending on the information and the audience, you might use tables, graphs, written summaries, examples of participant work, or audio and video. Share achievements, challenges, and uncertainties in formats people can understand and use.

Feedback is an exchange, not simply a report from evaluators or managers. People carrying out the work can use findings to understand what appears to be working and what needs attention. Their experiences can also help explain the results. Leaders and board members need to hear about organizational conditions that support or limit effective work.

Are staffing, supplies, time, and funding adequate? Do people have the training and support they need? Are participants welcomed and able to access services? Can staff, volunteers, and community members raise concerns without being dismissed or penalized? Discuss these questions alongside results so that feedback leads to appropriate changes in organizational support as well as practice.

Share feedback throughout the initiative, at times when people can act on it. A final evaluation report can contribute to learning, but it should not be the first opportunity to discuss important findings. Explain what decisions are open for discussion and how people can influence them.

This section focuses mainly on feedback from monitoring: the ongoing tracking of activities, implementation, and accomplishments that may contribute to longer-term outcomes. Monitoring can guide improvements, but activity counts alone do not establish the initiative's impact.

Why provide feedback?

Regular feedback can help your initiative:

• Assess progress toward shared goals with community members, participants, and organizational leaders
• Identify areas that need additional attention, resources, or support
• Recognize when activities are taking resources away from agreed priorities
• Recognize contributions and celebrate meaningful accomplishments
• Connect recent activities with longer-term progress, while considering the quality and reach of accomplishments
• Involve funders in discussions about resources and adjustments that support the initiative's mission and community priorities
• Give funders and partners a credible account of achievements, unmet needs, and opportunities for continued support

When should you provide feedback?

Set a schedule that matches the pace of the work, the availability of useful information, and the decisions your group needs to make. For example, monthly discussions may help during early implementation, with quarterly reviews once activities are more established. Review urgent findings sooner, particularly when they concern participant safety or serious barriers to access. At each session, revisit previous decisions and ask what happened after changes were made. Allow enough time for expected results to emerge before judging an adjustment.

How should you provide feedback?

Begin with a clear, balanced statement about how the initiative is doing

Summarize the most important findings, including both progress and concerns. Be specific about the evidence. For example, "We received 35 letters from parents describing positive experiences with the school safety committee this semester" is more precise than "Parents are pleased with the committee." It also avoids implying that the letters represent every parent's experience. Explain the period covered and any important gaps in the information.

Findings will often be mixed. Some activities may be working well while others need revision or more support. Discuss problems directly and respectfully, focusing on practices and conditions rather than labeling people. Participants may feel disappointed, concerned, or frustrated; allow space for those responses without minimizing the findings. The purpose is to understand the situation and decide what to do next.

Frame feedback as an opportunity for shared learning and action

Explain how the information can help the group make decisions. Recognize the effort people have contributed, while being honest about what the evidence shows. Invite questions about the findings and the methods used to obtain them. Maintain confidence in the group's ability to learn and respond without promising success or presenting every result as positive. Findings about harm, exclusion, or serious implementation problems should receive prompt attention rather than being softened to preserve morale.

Use graphs where they clarify the findings

One useful sequence connects implementation with outcomes. Label each graph clearly, explain its time period and data source, and provide an accessible text or table alternative:

• Process and output measures — How activities were carried out, who participated, participants' experiences, and the amount of work completed in relation to the initiative's objectives
• Intermediate outcomes — New or modified programs, policies, and practices, including whether they were implemented and whom they reached; discuss relevant contextual events alongside these measures
• Longer-term outcomes — Changes in behavior, access, conditions, or well-being among participants or across the community; distinguish observed changes from evidence that the initiative caused them

Share narratives and other forms of evidence

Interviews, participant comments, observations, and examples of work or learning can explain experiences that counts and graphs do not capture. Present these materials with enough context to make their meaning clear. Select examples that reflect the range of findings, including differing experiences, and obtain permission for identifiable quotations, images, or recordings.

These materials can inform questions about implementation, intermediate outcomes, and longer-term change. Analyze them systematically by identifying recurring themes, differences, and exceptions. Numerical data also require interpretation, and qualitative findings can be presented visually when useful. A trend is a pattern of change over time; it does not automatically indicate whether a goal has been achieved.

Discuss what the material helps explain. Which actions, services, or conditions do participants describe? What do examples of their work show about learning, and what do they leave uncertain? Which accounts reveal barriers or unintended effects? Avoid treating one compelling story as representative of everyone, while recognizing that an uncommon experience may still identify an important concern.

Much of this is qualitative data: descriptions, experiences, and interpretations that help explain how and why things happen. Some aspects can be counted, but counts should not replace the context and meaning that make the information useful.

Discuss and interpret the information together

Use these practices to support a productive discussion:

• Begin with the purpose of the discussion and a balanced overview of the most important findings.
• Ask how group members interpret the information. Explore differences in interpretation and identify what additional evidence could help; agreement is not always possible or necessary.
• Use a recent, specific example to connect the findings with day-to-day work.
• Identify strengths, challenges, and uncertainties supported by the evidence.
• Discuss patterns over time, differences among groups, and changes in data collection that might affect the results.
• Consider possible adjustments, including the resources and organizational support needed to carry them out.
• Review the examples behind the graphs and qualitative findings, and check whether they support the conclusions being discussed.
• Recognize demonstrated progress and contributions without overstating what they establish.
• Invite remaining questions and provide another way to contribute for people who prefer not to speak in the group.

If a measure does not show the expected progress:

• Check what the measure represents, the intended direction of change, and whether enough time has passed. A higher number is not always better, and a stable result is not automatically a failure.
• Review the longer-term pattern and relevant context. For example, funding receipts may cluster around award dates. Use documented patterns to explain variation rather than assuming every setback is temporary.
• Ask what may need to change and whether the issue involves the approach, implementation, resources, access barriers, or outside conditions.
• Check for missing or duplicate records and inconsistent definitions. Add previously unrecorded activities only when they can be verified, document corrections, and keep the same counting rules rather than changing the record to make results look better.

Close with shared conclusions and clear next steps

Summarize what the group learned, where interpretations differ, and what remains uncertain. Recognize strengths while stating concerns that require action. Review the evidence most relevant to the initiative's mission, then agree on specific steps, responsible people, needed resources, and a date to review progress. Share a brief record of decisions and explain how participants' feedback influenced them. People should leave understanding what happens next and what support is available.

Making feedback useful

Keep these principles in mind when preparing and discussing evaluation feedback:

• Share findings as information for learning, accountability, and decisions.
• Be respectful and encouraging while reporting strengths and problems honestly.
• Build confidence in the group's ability to respond without guaranteeing outcomes.
• Turn findings into specific adjustments, with responsibility, resources, and follow-up.
• Connect decisions to the initiative's mission and the priorities of people affected by its work.

Useful feedback combines clear evidence, thoughtful listening, and follow-through. It helps people understand what is happening and what they can change, including where leaders need to provide additional support. Return to earlier decisions, report what happened, and keep the conversation open as the initiative learns and develops.