"A good evaluation partner improves the program while it's running, supports the people in it, and strengthens the next proposal. Compliance is the floor of this work, never the point of it."
For anyone holding or writing a grant: the evaluation section of the proposal, running the evaluation across the award, ethics and IRB, and what to do when findings are hard.
A fundable evaluation section names the questions, the design, a defensible budget, and the evaluator, and it's written while the proposal is still being built.
Explore this Topic →A grant evaluation runs across the whole award, from the first question asked to the funder's annual report, and the plan can change when the program does.
Explore this Topic →Whether an evaluation needs IRB review depends on what's asked, of whom, and what happens to the answers, and the ethical obligations hold either way.
Explore this Topic →An evaluation that finds a program isn't working is still useful, and there are honest ways to report it that protect the program and the funder relationship at once.
Explore this Topic →For anyone deciding whether to bring in an evaluator: outside help or in-house, how to find and vet one, what evaluation costs, and what working together is really like.
For leaders who have data and a story to tell: making sense of what you already have, turning it into reports people read, and communicating results to boards, funders, and communities.