In short: 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.
Once the award lands, the evaluation runs alongside the program. These pages cover formative and summative evaluation, reporting to funders, the working timeline with an evaluator, and how findings feed the next proposal.
Working with an evaluator follows a known rhythm, and a good one starts from the records you already keep without judging the state they're in.
Most organizations already hold enough to show whether a program is working, and the first task is telling outputs and outcomes apart.
A report gets read when it answers the question the reader arrived with, and a credible impact story carries evidence and context alongside the human account.
Boards, communities, and accreditors each need something different from the same results, and sharing results with a community carries obligations a board briefing doesn't.