How the Evaluation Initiative Works
From preparing for measurement and assessment to complex evaluation design, we start from where you are.
Let us partner with you to develop your capacity or the capacity of your grantees or community partners to:
Implement data collection processes and data management systems that establish a basis for accountability, inform service improvement, and document outcomes.
Produce credible reports based on empirical results that inform strategic philanthropy and satisfy public agencies’ administrative reporting requirements.
Years of practical evaluation experience enable us to demystify technical concepts and work with leadership and staff, starting from where they are to develop and implement rigorous evaluation plans.
We begin to build evaluation capacity by engaging direct service staff, managers, supervisors, and administrators to articulate the questions they want to answer.
A Common Project Trajectory
Our assessment and diagnosis process establishes a point of departure. Let us collaborate with you to:
Conduct an evaluability assessment (establishing readiness and capacity)
Document review (goals and objectives, logic model, theory of change)
Stakeholder interviews
Inventory and optimize existing data collection instruments, databases and systems
Inventory existing measurement requirements and responsibilities
Determine local questions and information needs
Action steps, customized on the basis of assessment results:
Co-create a capacity-building plan
Full-spectrum implementation coaching, training and support to:
Establish a common evaluation vocabulary and conceptual framework
Backfill any pieces missing from the evaluation foundation
Establish a constellation of evaluation measures and interpret the relationships between them
Construct a reasonable, achievable evaluation design consistent with existing resources and build the micro competencies that comprise evaluation activities
Cultivate staff ownership of the evaluation process
Develop an evaluation reporting structure that meets or exceeds funder accountability requirements
Monitoring implementation and progress tracking
We stand by our clients, scheduling periodic evaluation progress reviews and remaining available to problem-solve and facilitate adaptation to new circumstances and demands
The Strategies Center leaves you with the products, templates, knowledge and skills to excel in future evaluation efforts. We offer:
Staff that understand the evaluation framework and methods and are able to capably continue implementing the evaluation plan
Capacity to meet evaluation reporting requirements
A bridge between theory and practice