Evaluation of What?

We all seek to evaluate our grants and community work. But frequently there is not a clear understanding of just what we are evaluating, since we often have to make an evaluation long before it is logical to look at results of a grant.

Volumes have been written and experts discuss evaluation techniques and strategies. Here’s a brief list that I have used with grant committees to think about as they consider evaluation strategies. There are four types of evaluations:

* Context evaluation – analyzes the environment or context for programs by defining conditions, unmet needs, alternative opportunities, values, etc.
* Input evaluation – like an action plan, this model examines how to best use resources to meet program objectives, like costs and benefits, comparisons of different designs, etc.
* Process evaluation – this takes place after work has begun and serves as a management control to identify problems and obstacles early enough to do something about them and it creates a record of the program as it occurs.
* Product evaluation – ultimately a decision needs to be made about whether to maintain, modify or terminate a program, so this is based on information on the extent to which objectives have been/are being achieved.

Thoughtful discussion by a grants committee as to what they want from an evaluation is the first step. Then good collaboration with your grantees will enable you to design simple strategies to gather this information. I’ve always felt that evaluation is intended to help the grantee as well as the funder.

Helen Monroe