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Section 4. Communicating Information to Funders for Support and Accountability

Why should you try to let others know about your initiative?

___To let the public to know you exist

___To let the public know some of what you've been doing to help your community

___To stir public interest

___To expose the issue and encourage the public to take action

Why should you inform the public at the local level?

___To help raise awareness about the issue

___To help attract volunteers, funding, and in-kind resources from local concerned citizens and agencies

___To promote awareness of the efforts of volunteers and collaborators

___To help lobby for local ordinances or program changes to address issues of concern

___To provide accountability to the community, trustees, and funders

Why should you inform the public at the state level?

___To create a "name" for your initiative in the state, which makes it more competitive when seeking state resources

___To help establish a statewide network of persons and agencies with similar goals

___To help lobby for legislative changes to address the issues of concern

___To help the initiative garner recognition and resources from the state and region

Why should you inform the public at the national level?

___To create a "name" for the initiative nationwide, which makes you more competitive when seeking resources from the state or federal government or from large private foundations

___To help tap into nationwide networks of persons and agencies with similar goals and wide expertise

___To help the initiative garner recognition and resources from across the country

___To encourage community partnerships to work on the problem or issue

How can you ensure that your findings aren't ignored?

___Give your information to the right people!

___Address issues which those people think are important

___Be sure the information has been presented in time to be useful and in a way that's clearly understood

What are some key audiences for sharing your data?

___Staff

___Volunteers

___Supporters in the community

___Funders

___Your target population

___The general public

What are some key local audiences for sharing your data?

___Civic organizations

___Business groups

___Grassroots organizations

___School boards

___Parent-teacher groups

___Church organizations

___The local press

___Health organizations

___Elected and appointed local government officials

___Grantmakers

What are some key state/regional audiences for sharing your data?

___State and regional professional conferences,

___Regional professional training workshops

___Grassroots and advocacy organizations

___Church conferences

___Grantmakers

What are some key national audiences for sharing your data?

___Professional conferences

___Professional training workshops

___Grassroots and advocacy organizations

___Church conferences

___Grantmakers

How should you deal with difficult audiences?

___Anticipate their questions, concerns, and objections

___If appropriate, have a primary figure in your initiative present the findings

___Have someone else give out the information

___Reinforce the data repeatedly

___Keep your cool

How should you present your evaluation findings to the press?

___Be honest with reporters

___Write your own press releases

___Train your reporters

What should you include in your presentation?

___The issue(s) of concern

___The initiative's goals, strategies, and methods for reaching those goals

___Data on activities (e.g., services provided)

___Data on accomplishments (e.g., community changes)

___Data on outcomes (i.e. behavioral measures and community-level indicators)

___Keep your visuals simple to cut down on problems interpreting data

What are some different avenues of getting the word out about your evaluation results?

___Word of mouth

___Presentations

___Newspapers and newsletters

___Radio - both public service announcements and local news or call-in shows

___Television coverage

___Professional journals

What are the different formats for presenting your evaluation results?

___Technical reports

___Executive summary

___Technical professional paper

___Popular article

___News release and/or press conference

___Public meeting

___Media appearance

___Staff workshop

___Brochures/posters

___Memo

___Personal discussion

What are possible goals of your presentation?

___Money and in-kind resources for your initiative

___Volunteers for project activities

___Influence in changing a program, policy, or practice

___Input on how to make the initiative more responsive

___Overcoming resistance to the initiative

___Ideas on how the initiative can become more effective

What are the steps for developing your presentation?

___Understand your primary users and audiences

___Review the results of your evaluation with program staff before writing up your evaluation report

___Take time to brief any important political figures before releasing your report to the public

___Know that your final report can just be a short document summarizing the evaluation findings with a technical appendix for those who are interested

___If you decide to do an oral presentation, make a small number of charts and tables illustrating the most important findings

___Begin your report with the reasons the evaluation was done, what questions were asked, and why those were the questions chosen

___Explain what your group or coalition wanted to learn from the evaluation and what methods were used to conduct the evaluation

___Explain what sort of implications the results have for your group or initiative