I got your attention with that title, didn’t I? Am I saying evaluation is a waste of time? Absolutely not. But I am saying that, often, the ways organizations invest their time in evaluation creates a lot of wasted effort and missed opportunities. Do you know a nonprofit that has time, energy, and resources to waste? I don’t!
This week I want to talk briefly about the challenge that is, according to the 2016 State of Evaluation report, most often cited as a barrier that prohibits or limits organizations’ evaluation efforts: lack of staff time (79%).
Yes, evaluation takes time. That’s indisputable and unchangeable.
As I see it, there are three basic phases of evaluation that each take time. How much time you spend in each phase will determine the value of the time you spend in the others.
- Evaluation planning is your opportunity to ask, hone, and prioritize learning questions that are meaningful and relevant. Next, you identify valid and feasible ways you can collect information to answer those questions.
- Conducting evaluation involves designing and administering the different tools you’ll use to collect your data. These could be surveys, assessments, interviews, or even case documenattion forms. This phase also includes the time spent entering and analyzing data.
- Lastly and hopefully, you are using evaluation to make decisions, identify opportunities for improvement, demonstrate impact, tell your story, and enlist support!
Without a careful, well-thought-out plan for evaluation, you will likely collect too much or the wrong kind of information. That’s a waste! But let’s say you do plan your evaluation efforts carefully, but you don’t take the time to reflect on and put into action the learning from your data. That’s a waste, too!
I can’t exclude from this discussion one powerful truth – most organizations are evaluating because someone else told them to: a funder, accrediting body, or parent organization. Usually, those external stakeholders only dictate what you measure, not how you measure it or how you use it. That’s up to you.
Invest time and energy in the first and last phases, so the work in the middle isn’t just mandated but also meaningful!
Tips & Tools to Make the Most of Your Time
- Before you begin evaluating anything, think carefully about and talk to the different audiences who want to learn from and use your evaluation results. This includes clients, managers, directors, Boards, funders, accreditors, and fundraisers, at least. What questions do they want to answer? What decisions do they want to inform? And what data, presented in what ways, will achieve their goals? Designing your evaluation with its intended use in mind will increase the chances it will actually get used.
- Develop a dissemination plan that outlines:
- Who you will share the results with
- When
- Using what tools (reports, presentations, newsletters)
- And in what context
- Take the time to think carefully and clearly as a team about the measurable definitions of the things you’re evaluating. Are you using the right definitions, the right indicators, and are your tools (surveys, forms, assessments, etc.) aligned with those definitions? Don’t waste time measuring the wrong things!
- Use a Performance Management or Evaluation Plan (different names, similar purposes and content) to outline what you care about, how you define it, and how you’ll measure it.
The Bottom Line
I’m not saying you need to invest more time. I’m encouraging you to be more intentional and more focused with the time you already invest, so you it gives you greater returns!