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
