Have you ever been curious about what it is like to volunteer as an evaluator? Or are you considering a volunteer opportunity in the near future? This article aims to give you some insight into finding and engaging in a volunteer opportunity. Many organizations recognize the need for evaluation of their programs or services, but not all of them have the capacity to hire an evaluator for their team or to bring in an evaluation consultant. For these organizations, volunteers or pro bono evaluators may be the solution.  

On the other side of the coin, an evaluator (or any professional!) may be eager to offer their skills pro bono to support an organization. The reason for seeking out a volunteer opportunity is likely to vary – an evaluator may want to help an organization that is important to them, experience a new industry, new country or culture, or to simply offer up some of their spare time to volunteering. Ideally, the organizations in need of evaluation expertise will be connected with the volunteer evaluator resulting in a mutually beneficial experience.

I am writing this article as a volunteer evaluator currently offering pro bono services to an NGO abroad in need of monitoring and evaluation support. My aim is to share some information on volunteering in general, pro bono evaluation, my volunteer experience, some key differences, and tips for success should you decide to pursue your own volunteer opportunity. If you want to learn more about my volunteer experience you can read my article about evaluating in the developing world.

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Volunteerism

Skilled professionals, such as evaluators, have a lot to offer through pro bono services. Studies have found that taking time from work to volunteer is linked to overall well-being of the volunteer (Thoits & Hewitt 2001) and enhanced skills such as cross-cultural competency (Caligiuri et al. 2019).

Through discussions with skilled volunteers over the past few months, I found that a common theme or rationale for volunteering was to apply skills or expertise in a new setting or context. Anecdotally, the experience of volunteering allowed for engagement with new populations and places; which was viewed as professional development in a less traditional sense.

My experience was supposed to be a three-month engagement volunteering with an NGO in a developing country, which I am now completing remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I too was eager to experience a completely new context and challenge myself to apply my evaluation skills in a completely different space.

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Volunteer Opportunities

Some volunteer opportunities require a short-term commitment (under a month), while others require a longer-term engagement and/or full-time hours (over a month to a year or more). I was compelled to take on a longer-term commitment after reading about sustainable and ethical volunteerism. Moreover, in some cases short term volunteer tourism in developing nations can do more harm than good (Guiney & Mostafanezhad 2014, Guttentag 2009, Raymond & Hall 2008), so make sure you fully research the role and organization before you commit to any volunteer position.

Once I nailed down an ethical volunteer organization,  I began to explore how I could tackle this opportunity financially and without turning my regular life into total chaos (not easy, but worth it!). For many people (myself included) the largest barriers to volunteering are the logistics of moving abroad and the financial cost associated with it – however there are ways to mitigate these obstacles.

• Create a budget: stick to your budget and check-in as frequently as possible.

• Cost of living: volunteering in a developing country, although more challenging, is much more affordable. For example, in Cambodia (where I am), rent for a high quality studio apartment goes for around $250 USD, and can be as low as $100 USD per month if you’re willing to sacrifice some creature comforts. You can also find delicious meals for as low as $2 USD.

• Look at ways to press “pause” back home: utilize sabbatical opportunities, rent out your home, bank vacation days, or continue to work remotely.

• Consider volunteering remotely: working virtually is becoming more common, as is volunteering. This is a great solution for evaluators who want to volunteer but are not in the position to leave home. 

I recognize that leaving home for an extended amount of time is not feasible for many, but I do believe that long-term engagements are important; it takes a couple of weeks just to understand an organization, whether it is local or international. A good place to start if you want to contribute your skills locally is through resources such as Volunteer Canada (if you’re Canadian) or similar organizations set up in your country. These organizations house lists of credible volunteer organizations nation-wide. If you’re like me and interested in getting some international volunteer experience, consider organizations like Professionals Doing Good that focus on connecting experienced professionals with projects that match their particular skillset. This organization offers both in-person as well as remote opportunities for professionals unable to relocate.   

The one point I feel is worth emphasizing is that skilled volunteerism is needed. Even if you can only offer a couple hours a week, many organizations can still put your skillset to work.

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Evaluating as a Volunteer

Continuing with the discussion of time commitments for volunteerism, this is even more important for evaluators. If an organization requires a full evaluation of a program and you can only offer a couple weeks of time, this may not be the best fit. However, using individual skills or methods for smaller tasks/deliverables can still be meaningful in short time frames.

For example, evaluators can offer to help develop a survey, hold focus groups, develop a logic model or perhaps an evaluation plan that can be put into play when needed or if more resources become available. You do not need to conduct an entire evaluation to make an impact – just offering one or two of your evaluator skills can be a game changer for organizations.

It may sound cliché, but being a volunteer evaluator is very rewarding. We, as evaluators, have a skillset that many organizations need (whether they know it or not). In my experience, within the first couple of weeks, evaluators can bring a different lens to a program that allows for quick wins and buy-in from leadership to prioritize or at least support future evaluation work.

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Key Differences

If you can’t tell by now, I am in support (and encourage) evaluators to participate in skilled volunteer opportunities. Of course, the nature of being a volunteer rather than an employee or consultant results in a very different experience. I thought I should share three main differences I experienced as I put on my volunteer hat and set aside my consultant hat.

• Different expectations: Many NGOs are often expected to undertake monitoring and evaluation by their funders (or board) but do not always have a grasp of what it actually entails. As a result, expectations might not be well-defined for volunteer evaluators. I see this as both negative and positive – negative in that the scope may not be clear, but positive in that we are given the chance to really show what evaluators can do. 

• Getting attention: Many volunteers, depending on the role, work quietly in the background. I think that for evaluation activities to be successful we need to engage with as many relevant stakeholders as possible. It might not be normal (or appropriate) for an NGO executive to receive an email from a volunteer asking for their time. Fortunately I am with an NGO that supported my need to run ideas by program leads, but I would not expect this for every organization.

• Flexibility: When volunteering, it can feel a bit daunting to enter an agreement without previously responding to an in-depth RFP or signing a pre-determined work plan. Don’t get me wrong, I love a regimented plan (I would argue that most evaluators do), but the flexibility was appreciated. It allowed for me to shift my approach with ease and provide more meaningful deliverables. My most recent example of this comes from attempting to report some administrative data only to find that most of it was missing. I decided to evaluate the process of collecting, storing and utilizing data – resulting in recommendations for process improvement.

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Strategies for Success

Now that I have hopefully shed a positive light on evaluator volunteerism, I want to share five tips to help you succeed in your future volunteer opportunity.

1. Be intentional: You are giving up your time (and likely money) to volunteer. Approach the project or tasks with intent to ensure change is made or meaningful deliverables are left.

2. Have patience: They may have welcomed you with open arms and are excited to have an evaluator on board, but this does not mean they are equipped to handle an evaluation. Be patient as you ask for data or learn what previous evaluation efforts (if any) exist within the organization.

3. Make a plan: I mentioned earlier that it is nice to not have a set work plan or contract – this doesn’t mean you should avoid planning entirely! Once an organization learns what skills you bring to the table, scope creep can become a very real threat. I recommend developing a plan and sharing it with your main contact to ensure everyone is in agreement of what you can offer/ have time to do.

4. Build a network: One of the best parts of volunteering abroad is the expat community. Even an introvert like myself found that it was easy to meet other volunteers and expats. You will find that you have a lot in common and they will naturally become your support system while abroad. Start to connect with past or current volunteers via social media before you leave, they will be eager to share their insights and tips.

5. Own the experience: You are there because you want to be. It may not always be exciting work, but enjoy it! Meet new people, learn about the organization as much as possible, and be proud of the work you have done.

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Being a volunteer evaluator has been very rewarding and I have learned more than I had expected to. Although the path to scouting an ethical volunteer opportunity, planning for my departure and living in a new country were not easy – I can say that it was 100% worth it. If you are considering a volunteer opportunity and want to learn more, please get in touch with me on LinkedIn.  

Written by: Samantha Larose

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Sources

Caligiuri, P., Mencin, A., Jayne, B., & Traylor, A. (2019). Developing cross-cultural competencies through international corporate volunteerism. Journal of World Business, 54(1), 14-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2018.09.002

Guiney T, Mostafanezhad, M. (2014). The political economy of orphanage tourism in Cambodia. Tourist Stud. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797614563387

Guttentag, D. A. (2009). The possible negative impacts of volunteer tourism. International journal of tourism research, 11(6), 537-551. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.727

Raymond, E. M., & Hall, C. M. (2008). The development of cross-cultural (mis) understanding through volunteer tourism. Journal of sustainable tourism, 16(5), 530-543. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669580802159610

Thoits, P. A., & Hewitt, L. N. (2001). Volunteer work and well-being. Journal of health and social behavior, 115-131. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3090173

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As technology improves, more and more people are hosting virtual meetings and facilitating sessions remotely. Whether due to global pandemics, restricted travel budgets, or stakeholders flung across the world, evaluators should be prepared to facilitate virtual meetings or sessions.  

Most of us have probably been in remote meetings that have dragged on where we have checked out, checked our emails or surfed the web, barely paying attention. Facilitating remote sessions is a skill that takes practice to hone. We’ve taken the guesswork out of how to facilitate a great virtual session and have rounded up our best tips and tricks below. 

Before the meeting

Invest in good technology. Buy a headset and microphone with good audio quality as speakerphone can be echo-y and cause feedback. Before the meeting, it’s also a good idea to test your technology. Make sure the tools work with your operating system and that you know how to use the features. Can you mute all participants? Do you know how to enable a chat box? These are the kind of things you want to know in advance. Provide your audience with an audio dial-in option where possible.  

Send out an agenda and set expectations. Give participants an idea of what to expect and provide them with documents in advance. Sometimes having a brief half-page summary prepared in advance can help your participants come prepared and ready to engage. Let participants know if you expect them to use video. 

Log in early to allow space for people to join the meeting and to ensure it starts on time. Some meetings won’t allow participants to join until the host or moderator has joined. Logging in early gives time for people to get set up and connect.   

During the meeting

During your virtual meeting or facilitation, provide an agenda and refer to it throughout the meeting. This can help you stay on track and give your participants a frame of reference. 

Lay down the ground rules, or better yet, build them together! Do you want people to type questions in the chat box, or use a virtual hand raise to ask questions? Do you want participants to mute their microphones, or do you want to have a more informal meeting where microphones are unmuted to build a sense of community (note: this only works with a small group). Build explicit group norms to ensure conversation flows smoothly. 

Begin your session with an activity that promotes connection (a.k.a. an icebreaker). Ask a question and have the group type answers in the chat box or ask a question and have all participants answer out loud in turn. 

Enable the chat box and encourage people to use it! If participants are only typing in the chat box, you can use their responses to engage them and encourage them to speak out. 

Leave a little extra time for people to answer questions and contribute. Normally when facilitating discussion, you should pause for 8 seconds before assuming everyone is done contributing. When hosting virtual sessions, leave extra time (about 12 seconds) for participants to unmute themselves and ensure no one else is talking at the same time. It feels very awkward to wait so long, but count the seconds in your head. 

Try not to talk for more than 5 minutes at a time. Break up information dissemination with tasks or structured requests for feedback. Give your audience a problem to solve. If you are using a meeting to simply share information without requiring feedback, send an email instead! 

Create a shared responsibility. So often in virtual spaces, participants can become passive observers. Encourage involvement by giving participants a short time frame to complete a very specific task. Have participants share their answers out loud or in the chat box. 

After the meeting

Technically this advice is for the end of your meeting and it holds for in-person meetings as well, but make sure to set the date for your next meeting, or set expectations for participants to respond to a poll about the next meeting before the meeting ends. Hopefully people haven’t been paying attention to their email while in the meeting, so your request to set the next meeting time may get lost in their inbox. Be proactive and get consensus while you have everyone on the line. 

Send a short meeting summary, including any links that were mentioned. Summarize key questions or take-aways as participants may have been focused on entering items into chat boxes or keeping up with the flow of conversation instead of taking notes (ok, they might have also zoned out). 

Ask for feedback. Chances are you aren’t an expert at hosting virtual sessions (and that’s ok!). Ask your participants how it went; were they engaged, did the technology work, was there anything you could do differently? 

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Tools 

• Google Docs are great for getting people to brainstorm together. You can also use them to have the group break out into smaller groups, with each group writing on their own Google Doc.  

• Consider exploring augmented and virtual reality options (check out our article on AR and VR for ideas).

• Use the polling function in your meeting technology to get real time feedback and earn your participant’s attention 

• Get creative! Ask people to draw something and post a picture of it or make a Web Quest

• Use visuals to break up conversation and get people engaged. 

• Use online whiteboard tools to inspire creative thinking 

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Tips:  

Keep your meeting brief. If it’s going to be over an hour, consider a small break mid-way through to let participants get up and refocus. 

Don’t panic if something goes wrong. Sometimes, technology glitches and it’s out of our control. Be calm and if there was another speaker planned, pass the baton to them while you try to troubleshoot. If you can’t solve the problem within 5 minutes, consider postponing the meeting. 

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New and Noteworthy

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The new and noteworthy reads for March 2020 are focused on the new and noteworthy virus – COVID-19. “Noteworthy” is an understatement that does not describe the gravity this virus has and will continue to have on our lives for years to come. As such, here are the latest evaluation resources focused on COVID-19 that we hope will help guide your evaluation practice.  

Evaluation’s Yoda, Michael Quinn Patton, shows us the way in a pandemic

Leave it to MQP (@MQuinnP) to be one of the first to show us how this virus is/will impact our evaluation practice. Check out his blog post, Evaluation Implications of the Coronavirus Global Health Pandemic Emergency where he lays out, in a simple and engaging way, 15 implications we need to keep in mind. My favourite is to “Be Proactive”. It seems the tendency right now is to sit, wait and give our clients the time and space they need to deal with this crisis. While I agree evaluation is not top of mind for people right now, MQP hits the nail on the head when he says: 

“Don’t wait for them to contact you. Evaluation is the last thing on the minds of people who aren’t evaluators. They won’t be thinking about how the crisis affects evaluations. That’s your job as an evaluator. Get to work doing that job. Adjustments need to be made now, sooner rather than later. Offer help in updating your evaluation. This doesn’t necessarily mean delaying data collection. It may mean accelerating it to get up-to-date information about the effects of the crisis.”

Of course, he also talks a lot about principles relating to his Developmental and Blue Marble evaluation work and how it applies in this situation. In fact, Blue Marble Evaluation held a webinar titled, Blue Marble Evaluation: Evaluation Criteria for Transformation, that discusses evaluating transformation and six criteria for evaluating it. If that is a bit too much for your brain to handle right now then he has also put a video on YouTube for “evaluators’ pandemic comfort music” for you to sing along to. 

UNDP Independent Evaluation Office: Six tips for evaluation during crisis

The IEO of UNDP (@UNDP_Evaluation) recently produced and shared a one-page infographic that highlights six tips on evaluating programmes during crises. Like MQP, their first tip is to “rethink evaluation plans” with a focus on getting data to stakeholders as soon as possible. Of course, many of the tips talk about working remotely, be it working as a team or collecting data remotely. They recommend Skype interviews, mobile questionnaires, online surveys, collaboration platforms (Slack and Yammer) and satellite imagery to gather data.

Doing fieldwork in a pandemic

If you really want to dig into collecting date remotely, you need to check out Deborah Lupton’s crowd-sourced Google Doc, Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic. The document was originally created to turn traditional fieldwork (i.e. face-to-face) methods into a more ‘hands-off’ mode; since, many people have added numerous resources.

Deborah Luton also wrote a blog recently titled Social Research for a COVID and Post-COVID World: An Initial Agenda. In this blog post she talks about her experience doing social research on the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the obesity epidemic; she shares insights on similarities and differences with the current COVID crisis. From there she proposes a list of key social research questions that will generate a better understanding of the current and future impacts of COVID. 

Evaluation in a Crisis 

Chris Lysy of Fresh Spectrum (@clysy) is an evaluator and evaluation cartoonist and blogger. Recently he wrote about The Evaluation Mindset: Evaluation in a Crisis. Like MQP, Chris talks about the important role evaluators play ensuring decision makers have access to timely information. As he says, “evaluation is an anytime activity”. 

Checking in with evaluators

Carolyn Camman (@c_camman) and Brian Hoessler’s (@StrongRoots_SK) produced a podcast (Episode 33: Eval Café Check-in) where they asked sixteen evaluators from around the world (including our own Shelby Corley)  how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting them, what they want people to know, and what is giving them hope during this time. The results – it turns out evaluators are human and not just methodological robots! One of the big themes is how this crisis has brought people together (not physically of course) and ignited our need for connection. The guest evaluators talked about how people are reaching out more now than before when social distancing wasn’t the norm. Of course, like all good evaluators they talked about learning and what learning would come from this crisis. They wondered if the increased emphasis on human connection would continue and hoped that it has given us pause to re-assess our values and priorities going forward. Some also talked about the implications for how we work as evaluators and questioned if the new remote ways of working will push us to continue down that path in the future.

Tips for virtual gatherings

Speaking of remote ways of working, evaluators are adapting and incorporating virtual gatherings into how we do our work. For ideas on how best to do that, refer to Elizabeth Diluzio and Laura Zatlin’s AEA blog post Tips + Resources for Virtual Gatherings During This Global Pandemic.

The Spinoff cartoonist is a data wiz with data viz

There have been lots of charts flying around the Internet trying to tell the COVID pandemic story. My favourite data viz so far was posted on a New Zealand online magazine called The Spinoff; it was illustrated by their cartoonist Toby Morris. It is an animated graph that shows how individual discipline really can stop transmission. It is so good I sent it to my baby boomer parents who seem to think staying home does not apply to them.

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Up until one month ago my evaluation experience was firmly rooted in Canada. From my academic endeavours to my career as an evaluator, I carried a perspective very specific to Canada and the developed world.

Like many young (ish) evaluators, I wanted to get international experience – more specifically I wanted to take on the challenge of doing evaluation work in a developing country. I’m a Credentialed Evaluator, how hard could it be? Would it really be that different? Would I apply the same approach and methods? Would evaluation be welcomed with open arms? These were the types of questions I optimistically asked myself as I packed what I thought would be practical clothes and savvy travel gadgets before my long flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I would soon find out that I was incorrect in my optimism to copy and paste my evaluation perspective as well as my packing list.

One month later, as I cross my fingers and hope that the power stays on long enough for me to send some emails, I am finally able to reflect on my experience so far. In no particular order, I am sharing six of my learnings to date. Although some may come across as cynical or potentially naïve, I share them as I am confident they will make me a better evaluator in my current role as well as when I am back home in Canada.

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Lesson #1

Context is Everything

Cambodia and the Khmer people captured my heart as a traveller, so naturally I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer at a healthcare NGO based in Siem Reap. Learning about a country and its history has always been of interest to me, but now I understand that it is also imperative to be able to do any meaningful evaluation work.

Cambodia is a country with a very dark, recent history. One doesn’t have to go too far back in time to hear the horrific stories of the Khmer Rouge, genocide, and war. And there are constant reminders of the obstacles that this country continues to face – from landmines to the loss of a generation. For example, the country was left with only 32 physicians for a population of approximately 6.6 million after the genocide (Santini, 2002) essentially forcing them to restart their medical education system.

The impact of these events is evident in the way people communicate, build relationships and set priorities. For example, health care appointments are often done with an open door and multiple family members in attendance – a sign of the slow process to rebuilding trust with both individuals and the organizations they represent. Likewise, when conducting interviews in villages the majority of time is spent being welcomed into a home or establishment and offered food, then once a relationship is established the actual gathering of information can begin. Again, I can’t emphasize enough that as an evaluator it is vital to understand the context. I started to realize this on day one and feel that it may be the biggest “take home” from this entire experience.

As evaluators we are trained to ask questions – we need to do this before we even get close to starting our work. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and continue to learn. In my case I was rewarded with a country that is happy to share their stories and perspectives which has given me the foundation to now ask better evaluation questions.

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Lesson #2

Feasible, Not Perfect

Capacity, does it even exist? This question is not unique to the developing world, I think it is inherent to most organizations – but I am reminded of it as I navigate my way through my current project. For example, it is great to recommend a new data collection tool, but is it actually possible to implement? Or worse, if implemented will it take up more time than it should for frontline staff?

Coming from a Consultant position prior to this project, I aim to submit watertight deliverables. I still have this perfectionist mentality, but it isn’t always in the best interest of low resource projects. I am learning that in a low resource setting a finished product is often better than a perfect product.

Lastly, it is important to create or implement changes that are not only feasible but sustainable. NGO’s, particularly in developing countries, have quite a bit of turnover due to short term expat contracts. A question I am trying to ask myself regularly is “Will the documents or processes I implement be easily understood by future staff and volunteers?”

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Lesson #3

Champion Evaluation

In my experience so far I rarely hear about evaluation without it being tied to monitoring. Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) is often thrown into funding agreements or annual reports but I would argue that it isn’t really evaluation, but rather the presentation of inputs and outputs.

There is a desire to present the impact of the work NGOs are doing, but in reality they rarely get past transactional or process data. Again, this is an issue in both developed and developing countries but one I experience daily in my current role.

Rather than correcting definitions (output versus outcome, anyone?), I have decided to adopt an educational approach. I think that when evaluators find themselves in a setting where evaluation literacy is low, it is our job to explain the difference between research, monitoring and evaluation. We need to champion the use of our profession to help developing countries communicate what they are doing (and at my NGO it really is impressive!) and then hopefully this will help them land more funding and do more good.

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Lesson #4

Be Patient (but seriously)

I already mentioned the inconsistent electricity – one prime example of something I took for granted. I was not the best version of myself the first few times I sat in the dark wondering if it would be hours or days until I could charge my laptop. Fortunately, I work with people that learn to use that time to grab a coffee, stretch and catch up with other staff. They are rock stars when it comes to having patience and I really hope it will rub off on me.

Patience isn’t just required to live in a developing country, it is needed for every project and every task. I have learned that often it is two steps back before ever moving forward. NGOs in the developing world have big goals and are eager to make a difference (a lot like NGOs back home). However, it doesn’t always line up with what processes are in place. For example, I was asked to help my NGO better understand their donors. They have a donor database so I figured it would be a ‘quick win’. Wrong – data entry processes appeared to have changed every year and excel spreadsheets became preferable to the actual database. So it was two steps back, which in this case was creating a process map to understand data entry processes.

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Lesson #5

Unexpected Influence

I’d like to think that as an Evaluator I am pretty aware of bias. However, I have been introduced to potential biases that I have never considered in the past. For example, Westerners or ‘Barang’ as Cambodian’s say, introduce a lot of bias when engaging in research or M&E. We can be mistaken as a potential donor or funder – this might put people on edge or cause them to only show the good stuff (which isn’t great when you are trying to improve a program). 

Unsurprisingly, we also come with our own set of ideas and beliefs. Again, not a revelation but I am more aware of this than I have ever been in the past. I have to actively try and ignore the KPIs and evaluation questions I became accustomed to at home as chances are they are not nearly as meaningful for this population.  For example, most health care measurement in developed countries revolves around topics like quality, efficiency, and safety. I initially took this same approach but quickly learned that access and availability of expertise were more important to understand before diving in to the more traditional KPIs. Moreover, the larger concern is getting health services to rural communities and training local staff to be able to sustain access.

I am fortunate in that I am being exposed to methods that help minimize our bias. For example, Participatory Action Research or PAR is actively used at my NGO (Baum et al., 2006). It may not be a new method, but it is definitely one that I am eager to learn more about.

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Lesson #6

Take It All In!

I saved my favourite lesson for last. If you are lucky enough to work with an NGO in a developing country – take it all in (seriously). Do as the locals do, try the food, get lost in markets, visit local art galleries, and try to pick up a few phrases (even if it is embarrassing like my Khmer). It can be overwhelming, such as dodging scooters in 38°C whenever I need to get food, but it is worth it. I have never been so out of my comfort zone, but I’m learning to love it.

I would argue that engaging in the culture will not only give you some great party stories but it will make you a better evaluator.

Written by: Samantha Larose

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Sources

Baum, F., MacDougall, C., & Smith, D. (2006). Participatory action research. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 60(10), 854–857. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2004.028662

Santini, H. (2002). Rebirth of the health-care system in Cambodia. The lancet, 360, s57-s58. Retrieved from: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(02)11824-1.pdf

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New and noteworthy — Reads

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Foundations’ evaluation and learning practices

The Center for Evaluation Innovation recently released its most recent review of foundations’ evaluation and learning practices. This report offers benchmarking data on foundation evaluation practice collected in 2019 from 161 foundations. What were the results from this year’s survey?   

Here are some key takeaways:

1. Language is shifting – More job titles for foundation evaluation leaders include the word “learning”; while fewer contain the word “ evaluation”. Results also showed that nearly half of the foundations contained the name “learning” in the unit or department’s name.  

I have definitely felt this shift, but is it a good one? I’m all about learning, but evaluation is a key component to strategic learning.  

2. Evaluators are asked to do more with less – Despite larger foundations having more program staff the number of evaluators did not increase. In fact, the ratio of full-time staff to evaluation staff is widening (i.e. less evaluation staff are dedicated to more full-time staff). In addition, most foundation evaluators had responsibilities beyond evaluation as part of their work – an increase from 2015.  

Evaluators have unique skills that can be used across organizations in a variety of capacities. Because of this, I know I am often pulled into tasks that may not be specific to my job as an evaluator but something my clients feel I should support. 

3. Evaluation use is still an issue – Foundation staff are the primary intended users of evaluation efforts, over grantees and others in the field. Yet the biggest evaluation challenge faced is having evaluations result in meaningful insights for the foundation.  

So, if the primary users aren’t using the results in a meaningful way and foundations aren’t engaging external stakeholders (either throughout the evaluation or even when it comes to sharing findings) then what’s the point? Is this what is driving the shift to focus on “learning”?  

Learnings from early experiences of country-led SDG evaluations

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by UN member states in 2015. Since 2015, countries have been developing national Sustainable Development Goal strategies and action plans targeted at achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but grappling with how to evaluate progress of such an enormous and complex agenda.  

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) recently published a guide to support country-led Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) evaluation. This guide offers learnings from early experiences of country-led SDG evaluations in Finland and Nigeria. The guide can be used to support evaluation commissioners and managers designing a national SDG evaluation.  

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New and Noteworthy — Resources

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Creative ways to solicit stakeholder feedback

Public Profit recently released a guide evaluators can refer to when looking for alternate ways to capture feedback. Survey fatigue is a real thing and sometimes us evaluators need more creative, engaging ways to engage with our stakeholders. This guide provides step-by-step guidance on 15 different approaches, organized into three sections: visual, kinesthetic and verbal. It’s a very accessible guide that clearly outlines the activity’s purpose, gives an overview of how it works, and provides step-by-step instructions. They have also published similar guides for soliciting feedback from youth and virtually. 

Strategizing and planning – Save the Children’s strategic foresight toolkit

Speaking of clear and accessible tools, you need to check out Save the Children’s recent strategic foresight toolkit – especially if you are doing any strategic planning. In this toolkit Save the Children compiles participatory techniques that combine evidence and creativity to help teams or organizations create collective wisdom and embed learning in decision-making. There are numerous templates and resources included in the toolkits. While they are not necessarily specific to evaluation, there are many that can be adapted. Check out the “Futures Wheel” –  I can foresee myself using this to show outcome chains as opposed to traditional designs we are used to. 

Your guide to the best Theory of Change software

Inspiring Impact did the work and outlined the different options out there to create the maps for theories of change. Their top four: 1) Google Drawings, 2) MindMup, 3) Coggle, and 4) Changeroo. The first three are not specific theory of change software, so you’ll need to know what you are doing; however, Changeroo was created to develop theories of change and has elements specific to theories of change. For example, when you click on a block in a theory of change you are prompted to identify the type of outcome and stakeholder it concerns. The drawback – it is most expensive of all the options. 

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