Measuring a program's effectiveness, required by most funders, is a key strategy for improving your program, keeping it on track, and marketing it to partners and other potential supporters. Clear presentation of your evaluation data and findings to the varied groups your project serves or works with will be most useful to you for sustainability.
How can evaluation be used for sustainability? Policy makers or stakeholders need to know what problem your program is solving, and what evidence you have that it is working. Presenting key findings from your evaluation can gain you support including funding. Knowing what different stakeholders care about can help you decide what to present. For example, showing a school principal that your program has reduced numbers of days that students are truant translates directly into dollars saved for his or her school, so this is a key finding for a principal.
Click on any of these listings for more information:
- Selecting and effectively working with your evaluator
- Designing evaluations with sustainability in mind
- Qualitative vs. quantitative evaluation methods
- Using evaluation for decision making
- Packaging your data for sustainability
Selecting and effectively working with your evaluator
Are You Making Progress: Increasing Accountability through Evaluation http://library.promoteprevent.org/item.php?id=118786&catid=116375
Choosing Evaluators (Community Toolbox) http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1351.htm
Working Well with Evaluation Consultants
http://www.gov.nt.ca/FMBS/documents/dox/Consultant%20Guide.pdfSustaining Interventions in Community Systems: On the relationship between researchers and communities. Altman, D.G. (1995) Health Psychology, 14 (6), 526-536 - full text not available
http://library.promoteprevent.org/item.php?id=118554
Designing evaluations with sustainability in mind
Are You Making Progress: Increasing Accountability through Evaluation (Online Course) http://library.promoteprevent.org/item.php?id=118786&catid=116375
Evaluation's Role in Supporting Initiative Sustainability
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/content/pubs/onlinepubs/
sustainability/sustainability.pdfEvaluation (Toolkit)
http://cyfernet.ces.ncsu.edu/cyfres/browse_2.php?search=EvaluationGetting to Outcomes: Promoting Accountability through Methods and Tools for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluation
http://www.stanford.edu/~davidf/GTO_Volume_I.pdfSustaining Interventions in Community Systems: On the relationship between researchers and communities. Altman, D.G. (1995) Health Psychology, 14 (6), 526-536 (Abstract)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&
db=PubMed&list_uids=8565927&dopt=Abstract
Qualitative vs. quantitative evaluation methods
Measuring Community Success and Sustainability: An Interactive Workbook
http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/Community_Success/about.htmlMeasuring and Using Results
http://www.financeproject.org/irc/ost/measuring.aspUsing Evaluation Data to Manage, Improve, Market, and Sustain Children's Services (Report) http://cecp.air.org/promisingpractices/2000monographs/
documents2000.htm#2Getting to Outcomes: Promoting Accountability through Methods and Tools for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluation (Report/Manual)
http://www.stanford.edu/~davidf/GTO_Volume_I.pdfBeyond Data (Web site)
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/beyonddata/index.htm
Using evaluation for decision making
Using Evaluation Data to Manage, Improve, Market, and Sustain Children's Services (Report)
http://cecp.air.org/promisingpractices/2000monographs/
documents2000.htm#2Measuring and Using Results (Web site)
http://www.financeproject.org/irc/ost/measuring.aspGetting to Outcomes: Promoting Accountability through Methods and Tools for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluation (Report/Manual)
http://www.stanford.edu/~davidf/GTO_Volume_I.pdf
Packaging your data for sustainability
Using Evaluation Data to Manage, Improve, Market, and Sustain Children's Services (Report) http://cecp.air.org/promisingpractices/2000monographs/
documents2000.htm#2Getting to Outcomes: Promoting Accountability through Methods and Tools for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluation (Report/Manual)
http://www.stanford.edu/~davidf/GTO_Volume_I.pdf
Using Data in Discussions of Sustainability: Some thoughts from a mid-point LSC (Online Discussion) http://sustainability2002.terc.edu/invoke.cfm/page/63
Beyond Data (Web site)
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/beyonddata/index.htm
