Submitted by Allison Shurilla
If the changes you’ve faced feel daunting and exhausting to you, take a breath! An evaluation approach can help support you and your organization in navigating change. Evaluation tools provide grounding and perspective by focusing on your core mission and goals, what you already know, and the tools you have at your disposal to connect with your communities.
An evaluation approach provides insights into questions like:
• How is our community responding to current events and environment? How do our programs need to change to serve our community?
• How is our community responding to program changes? What’s working well? What could be done better?
• How is our organization changing? How is our staff responding to these changes? What’s working and where are there gaps?
• What value do we add? Where can we have the greatest impact? How do we get our message out?
• How can evaluation be integrated into strategic planning, fundraising, communications, and organizational processes to help us answer the big questions our organization is facing?
These are some pretty big questions and can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially when the world around us is chaotic. Evaluation tools can help you break them down, refocus, and ground using what you already know and have access to. Here are a few tips on how you can use an evaluative approach to support you as you continue to adapt and pivot:
1. Go back to your core questions. It’s easy to get wrapped up in lots of ideas or the details of how to implement program changes.
• Tip: This is a great time to bring out your logic models, mission and vision statements, and program goals.
• Tip: Have a brainstorming session with your staff, board, or community to define or refine your questions.
2. Use your data. Look at the information you’ve already been gathering to help you identify the highest need areas for support and best opportunities for how to successfully design programs and systems that serve your community and meet your goals.
• Tip: Be creative in what you consider “data.” If you’re not sure how to start using data, ask, “what information do we have that could help us answer these questions.”
• Tip: If you need new information to answer your questions, who can you talk to to get answers? Could staff members provide insights? Do you need to ask your participants or community members for feedback?
3. Take the time to sit down and have a discussion. Staff members, your board, program participants, and community members can all provide invaluable insights to help problem-solve or give feedback on ideas.
• Tip: This is an opportunity to use your questions and data to keep on course. Ask participants for their interpretations, ideas, and if they see anything missing.
4. Leverage your current processes and organizational culture. How can you incorporate information gathering and interpretation into existing structures like staff meetings or programming? For example, if you work with youth, could you include an activity that engages them in providing feedback or coming up with ideas?
Focusing on your core questions and data can help avoid common pitfalls like getting wrapped up in new technology or following a trend. For example, does your community really need another online activity or is it more important to connect them to resources? As we pivot towards more in-person interaction many organizations might be tempted to disengage from online programming – could it be beneficial to maintain some of these program aspects and integrate them into your programming moving forward? Evaluation strategies can help you determine the best course of action for your unique community.
The best part of this approach is that it works with the tools you already have! Evaluation activities can be integrated into the systems that already exist in your organization. By approaching your work with an evaluation mindset, you can begin to incorporate these ideas in a way that is grounding and generative and which supports your work as you face changes in your community.
For more information on Evaluation Culture check out Allison’s other blog post, “What is an Evaluation Culture and Why do You Need One?”
