Evaluation Plan Template
An evaluation plan answers one question: how will anyone know whether this worked. Weak plans promise to measure everything and end up measuring nothing, because the person named to do it also has a full-time job delivering the project. This is what a plan has to specify to be credible.
See the coursesEverything on this page is yours to copy and adapt. The courses cover the decisions behind it: what to charge, what to promise, and what to put in writing.
What yours needs to cover
- ✓ The evaluation questions, which come from the objectives rather than from a wish list
- ✓ Indicators for each question, with the data source named
- ✓ The method and the schedule: what is collected, when, and by whom
- ✓ Baseline and target values, so the result can be compared to something
- ✓ How findings will be used and reported, including to the funder
How to use it
- Take each objective and write the one question that would prove it happened.
- For every indicator, name the person who collects it and the system it lives in.
- Cost the evaluation and put it in the budget, since unfunded evaluation is the part that quietly does not happen.
- Check the plan against the reporting the funder requires, so you are not collecting two different sets of numbers.
Evaluation Plan Template FAQs
What is the difference between process and outcome evaluation?
Process evaluation asks whether the project was delivered as planned, and outcome evaluation asks whether it produced the intended change. Most funders want some of both, weighted toward outcomes for anything beyond a small grant.
Do I need an external evaluator?
Only for larger or research-oriented awards, and the guidelines usually say. Where one is required, budget for them from the start, because adding an evaluator to a fixed budget means taking the money from delivery.
What if the project does not achieve its targets?
Report it accurately and explain what you learned. Funders deal with this constantly, and a candid report on a project that fell short does far less damage to a future application than a report that reads as though nothing went wrong.
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