Someone, somewhere has indicated that you need to offer some evidence that your program does what you say it does. Where do you being? Let’s begin by getting the bad news out of the way, then moving on to more positive news.
The bad news is that the need to evaluate your program is not going away. Even before the current economic crisis, support for non-profit, service-oriented programs was getting harder and harder to acquire. The need to demonstrate that resources invested in your program will result in a positive outcome is clearly here to stay. So, how do you do that? First, take a deep breath, then move on to the good news.
The good news is that, on some level, I believe that you already have some idea how to evaluate your program. By that I mean that you already know your successes and failures and what differentiates them. When you reflect on an event or a particular case that ended well, what factors are you focusing on? Conversely, when you think back to a situation that did not go as well as you’d hoped, what factors are you focusing on and what would you change if you could do it again? Try making a list of what those key factors are; the things that define a success in your world and the things that identify a failure or an area for improvement.
Once you have this list, you are well on your way. Program evaluation does not have to be complicated, but also know that if your evaluation is too superficial, it reflects badly on your organization. An incomplete or sketchy evaluation can even give the impression that you have something to hide. If you are a small organization or agency, you may not be able to afford a full-time professional with training in research design and methodology, so I’d suggest seeking out an independent consultant to help you along. You can reduce your costs by doing as much up-front work on your own as possible. Thus, the importance of the list I mentioned above. If you at least have a fairly clear idea what the target is, the consultant will have an easier time helping your figure out how to measure it.
From this point, the steps in evaluating your program include: (1) deciding how best to measure what you do; (2) measuring it; (3) summarizing the results of your information gathering; (4) presenting the information to the appropriate audience(s).
Take another deep breath. It is not nearly as intimidating as you might think.
Article Source: Jo-Ellen Asbury<
