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Assessment & Evaluation

Identifying Needs, Documenting Process, Monitoring Outcomes

Organizations and agencies can benefit from an external perspective when conducting needs assessment or evaluation.  We have experience assessing complex governmental agency systems that can inform structural solutions.  Our Program Stage of Development has been used by organizations to assess their readiness for program implementation.  We also specialize in designing outcome monitoring projects that are feasible for non-research teams to implement.

Needs Assessment

Since 1994 we have been helping organizations assess their staff and partner capacity, collaboration dynamics, management techniques, program context (landscape, SWOT), and strategic initiatives.  Our methods include document review, electronic survey, polling, context/environmental observation, in-person interviewing, focus groups, and modified Delphi feedback cycles.  We ensure the stakeholders collaborate in the project design and interpretation.  Our final product delivers a high-level summary perspective for Executive Teams, and the level of detail important for making programmatic decisions.

Process Evaluation

Excellent, concise documentation creates a record of a program, and provides valuable information for evaluation, accountability, marketing, and strategic planning.  Process evaluations need to be designed to match the capacity of the staff documenting the program.  Process evaluation can help inform funders of the excellent stewardship of the investment.  We wrote a chapter about our Program Stage of Development for the book shown in the picture.

Outcome Monitoring

Many organizations need assistance “right-sizing” their evaluations.  We ensure that your evaluation methods are tailored to your purpose and your organization’s capacity.  For example, as evidence-based strategies become more prevalent, you might need a method for monitoring the outcomes from those strategies.  And in an era of expectations for maximum impact with minimum time/funding, we can help you identify valuable intermediate outcomes that demonstrate potential progress toward the ultimate goal.