Monitor and evaluate

In most funding applications you will need to show that you know how you will be managing the monitoring and

evaluation of your project. The process of having to write about this will help you think through how the project will work in practice.

Serves –any organisation that plans to tender or seek grant aid
Preparation – thought about how you are realistically going to demonstrate how your project is doing, and how you will measure your achievements
Cooking time – 2 weeks to set up, but process will take place throughout the duration of the project

Ingredients

• outcomes (prepared earlier)
• objectives (prepared earlier)
• impact (prepared earlier)
• outputs
• indicators
• surveys and questionnaires
• observation
• interviews
• group meetings
• records and notes
• research sample
• summative evaluation
• process evaluation

Method

1. First, gather the ingredients you will need to monitor your project. Start with the project objectives and outcomes
2. Next, break down the objectives into outputs. For example, for a youth training programme the quantifiable outputs might include the number numbers of young people who start and who complete an activity, how many hours offered and completed
3. Next, break down your project outcomes into indicators. These are statements that demonstrate changes which take place as a result of the project activity and show progress toward meeting outcomes. For example, for a youth employability skills programme an outcome indicator might be “% of young people showing increased self-confidence” or “% taking up voluntary work” For large grant applications you may need to state which indicators you will use, for smaller applications it will usually be enough to briefly describe this process for monitoring.
4. Next, work out how the monitoring information is going to be collected. You may want to use some or all of the following: surveys and questionnaires; observation; interviews; group meetings; records and notes. You should briefly explain briefly your rationale for choosing particular methods, this will depend on the size of the project and its complexity, and what is required by the funder. It is important to ask the right questions.
   NB There are a lot of online tools available covering different kinds of activities, if relevant to your project you could use them to help design your indicators and collect the results. These tools add more rigour to the collection process; many can be accessed free of charge e.g. the Journey to Employment (JET) framework on whether the young person is actively seeking work, or the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, or the National Institute for Drug Abuse Quick screen tool, or the MASSCAP Career Readiness Skills Work Ethic and Preparedness tool .
5. Decide on your research sample: with smallish projects you may want (or need) to collect data on all participants, but this may not be practicable with larger projects or your whole organisation. In such cases your research sample should represent a cross-section of the participants group in terms of ethnicity, age, economic status and any other relevant variables.
6. Having gathered the raw data, the next thing is to interpret it, this being the summative evaluation. This could be a self-evaluation (using the organisation’s own expertise) or an external evaluation (using outside professionals); choice would depend the size, nature and complexity of the project. In the process of doing an evaluation new or serendipity issues may come to light that require clarification – perhaps by re-interviewing or surveying project staff or beneficiaries.
7. To support organisational learning, you may also find it useful do a process evaluation, this involves analysing data and surveying how participants feel how the project or organisation has been run, what had gone well and what less well.