The success of community organizing and programs can only be determined after the activities are appropriately assessed and evaluated. Monitoring and evaluation are crucial activities to determine if an initiative is producing the desired results, and if the results are equally valuable to the community, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), coalitions, and other stakeholders such as funders.
This section includes the following tools to help with your evaluation process:
Evaluation-TOOLS:
For ease of use we have grouped the following tools in two categories: How To Tools & Data Collection Tools
1. Empowerment Evaluation: Collaboration, Action Research, and a Case Example, describes an innovative approach to evaluation.
2. Community Development Evaluation Story Map, community based organizations, funders, and intermediary organizations working in the community development field have a shared interest in building stronger organizations and stronger communities. This project is a response to those concerns.
3. Social Marketing Evaluation: How you know whether or not you’ve “moved the needle”?, a tool that will help you organize your social marketing campaign evaluation plan.
4. Strategies to Overcome Evaluation Barriers, a tool that reviews some of the barriers and offers solutions to overcome them.
5. Tips for a Successful Evaluation, a summary of tips and strategies for making sure that the evaluation is a success.
6. Coalition Member Assessment, adapted from earlier satisfaction surveys by Gillian Kaye and Steve Fawcett.
7. Evaluating Community Collaborations, a practical approach to evaluating coalitions.
8. Evaluating a Community Forum, a survey to assess participants’ experiences at a community forum.
9. Legislative Visits Tracking Form, a way to document the success of visits to legislators to advocate for policy change.
10. Press Release Log, a way to document and track press releases and their publication.
11. Additional Resources, four additional sources of tools and information for developing evaluation strategies.
We have also compiled case studies to illustrate lessons learned about evaluating you or your coalitions actions.
1. Promoting Healthy Public Policy through Community-Based Participatory Research: Ten Case Studies, list of case studies of diverse community-based participatory research.
2. Realidad Latina: Latino adolescents, their school, and a university use photovoice to examine and address the influence of immigration, a photograph exhibition and community forum raised awareness among local decision-makers and community members of the issues and assets of Latino adolescents and initiated a process toward change.