Evaluation Planning for Proposals: a New NEO Resource

Posted by nnlmneo on August 12th, 2016 Posted in: Blog

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Have you ever found yourself in this situation?  You’re well along in your proposal writing when you get to the section that says “how will you evaluate your project?”  Do you think:

1. “Oh #%$*! It’s that section again.”
2. “Why do they make us do this?”
3. “Yay! Here’s where I get to describe how I will collect evidence that my project is really working!”

We at the NEO suggest thinking about evaluation from the get-go, so you’ll be prepared when you get to that section.  And we have some great booklets that show how to do that.  But sometimes people aren’t happy when we say “here are some booklets to read to get started,” even though they are awesome booklets.

So the NEO has made a new web page to make it easier to incorporate evaluation into the project planning process and end up with an evaluation plan that develops naturally.

We group the process into 4 steps: 1) Do a Community Assessment; 2) Make a Logic Model; 3) Develop Measurable Objectives for Your Outcomes; and 4) Create an Evaluation Plan.   Rather than explain what everything is and how to use it (for that you can read the booklets), this page links to the worksheets and samples (and some how-to sections) from the booklets so that you can jump right into planning.  And you can skip the things you don’t need or that you’ve already done.

In addition, we have included links to posts in this blog that show examples of the areas covered so people can put them in context.

We hope this helps with your entire project planning and proposal writing experience, as well as provides support for that pesky evaluation section of the proposal.

Please let Cindy (olneyc@uw.edu) or me (kjvargas@uw.edu) know how it works for you, and feel free to make suggestions.  Cheers!