Who actually cares about evaluation? Who is it for? Why do they care?
Show me the Change
Complexity and the Art of Evaluation – Reporting Sheet
Topic: Who actually cares about evaluation? Who is for? Why do they care?
Leader: Damien Sweeney
Participants: Jonathon Russel, Greg Bruce, Mark Butz, Julian Denler, Sarah Bartlett, Candyce Presland, Mike Rowell, Rob Catchlove, and more…
Key Points:
• Different people care about different aspects of evaluation. This can be about accountability and/or learnings. It is important for funders to justify expenditure (in case someone asks about the project).
• It is important to include mistakes/lessons/failures, to have a balanced report. Lessons need to be carefully phrased so as not to “surprise” or “shock” or “bring fear”.
• An independent evaluation can bring objectivity, and help to find unexpected consequences.
• Evaluation reports (especially executive summaries) are useful in review literature to design projects, but often they do not have a summary and clearly outline what worked and what did not.
• Safe-matching communication (collective social learning) offers a methodology for evaluation.
• Remember:
1. Evaluation is audience specific. Eg, you may only need a 5 minute video/snapshot for a councillor
2. Do not separate evaluation from project management! Use it as a tool to keep learning along the journey
• What is needed:
• A forum/website only evaluation reports that showcase failure
• Easily accessible evaluation reports for collective learning (not hidden on funder’s shelf)
• Risk – the media can latch on to bad news and stifle creativity (and lead to unbalanced reporting
• Remaining Question – “has accountability gone too far?”
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