Possible Project-Level Evaluation Activities
| Phase | Activities |
| Pre-Project |
- Assess needs and assets of target population/community.
- Specify goals and objectives of planned services/activities.
- Describe how planned services/activities will lead to goals.
- Identify what community resources will be needed and how they can be obtained.
- Determine the match between project plans and community priorities.
- Develop an overall evaluation strategy.
|
| Start-up |
- Determine underlying program assumptions.
- Develop a system for obtaining and presenting information to stakeholders.
- Assess feasibility of procedures given actual staff and funds.
- Assess the data that can be gathered from routine project activities.
- Develop a data-collection system, if doing so will answer desired questions.
- Collect baseline data on key outcome and implementation areas.
|
| Implementation and Project Modification |
- Assess organizational processes or environmental factors which are inhibiting or promoting project success.
- Describe project and assess reasons for changes from original implementation plan.
- Analyze feedback from staff and participants about successes/failures and use this information to modify the project.
- Provide information on short-term outcomes for stakeholders/decision makers.
- Use short-term outcome data to improve the project.
- Describe how you expect short-term outcomes to affect long-term outcomes.
- Continue to collect data on short- and long-term outcomes.
- Assess assumptions about how and why program works; modify as needed.
|
| Maintenance and Sustainability |
- Share findings with community and with other projects.
- Inform alternative funding sources about accomplishments.
- Continue to use evaluation to improve the project and to monitor outcomes.
- Continue to share information with multiple stakeholders.
- Assess long-term impact and implementation lessons, and describe how and why program works.
|
| Replication and Policy |
- Assess project fit with other communities.
- Determine critical elements of the project which are necessary for success.
- Highlight specific contextual factors which inhibited or facilitated project success.
- As appropriate, develop strategies for sharing information with policymakers to make relevant policy changes.
|
Source:
W. K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook. W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Battle Creek, MI. 1998.