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by Vanessa McKendall Stephens, PhD

Many informal groups such as parent or community groups miss the opportunity to use evaluation as a tool for learning. While the most frequently evaluated activity is a specific event, many groups do not have a way to collect information about the effectiveness of their work. This short discussion is designed to encourage you to think about ways to use evaluation to help you make decisions about your program’s effectiveness.

Evaluation is a way to learn what works and what needs to be improved about our program. This valuable information can help you make decisions about what actions to take and how to use your resources to help meet overall goals. Needed improvements or additions to your program will be easy to target when you have a systematic way to collect information. For example, being able to use data to talk about who is involved with your program not only helps you make key decisions about program improvement, but can also assist you when applying for grants or requesting donations. The information will help you demonstrate the points to make in your proposals. Most funding sources will want to know how you plan to evaluate the success of any of your work they fund.

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