Empowering Your Organization with Evidenced-Based Research and Evaluations

Through needs assessments, data collection frameworks and logic models can be designed to properly research the efficiency of programs and establish benchmarks. This approach leads to strategic planning that focuses on action steps and goals to strengthen an organization. As part of the data collection approach, often times, the voice of key stakeholders is overlooked. For this reason, it is important that evaluations incorporate the voice of clients and staff in the methods of data collection through interviews and surveys. Incorporating the voice of various stakeholders in the data collection design of evaluations leads to a higher level of program engagement and participation. The figure below lists some of the services provided as part of evaluation planning, and the seven steps that we typically use to help organizations identify a strategic plan.