Evaluating your project
All Grant Funders will want you to demonstrate the impact that your project has actually had.
Considering how you will evaluate your project should not be left until once you have received the funding – but when you are developing our application for support.
The amount and detail of any on going evaluation will likely be determined by the amount of funding you receive.
Evaluation can sometime be seen as a burden however it will help you demonstrate:
- What has changed as a result of the project?
- What has worked well and what has not worked so well which you can learn from?
- What difference has the funding support made?
- How do you know your project has made a difference
- Why a funder should provide further funding / new funding to support your project.
Support
Your local Council for voluntary Service will be able to provide you with support in planning how you will evaluate your project (see links to the CVS opposite).
Another source of support is Evaluation Support Scotland (web link opposite) which works with voluntary organisations and funders so they can measure the impact of their work. They provide practical support and access to resources and tools.
www.evaluationsupportscotland.org.uk
Evaluation Language
You often see reference to term such as outputs, outcomes and indicators. This is what is meant by some of these terms.
Activities: What your project will actually do – e.g. the delivery of a training course.
Outputs: What is 'produced' by your activity for the people who will use your service – e.g. the number of people on a training course and the additional skills they have gained as a result.
Outcomes: The change that the project is trying to create for people and/or the local community in the longer term – e.g. the reduction in unemployment resulting from the improved skills of people attending the training course.
Targets: How much you think you will be able to produce in terms of outputs – e.g. 200 people attending the training course each year, each gaining two specific skills and/or a specific qualification, or how much change you think you will achieve as a result of your project – e.g. 50 people getting into work after the training course.
Outcome indicators: The measures that are used to assess progress on each outcome – e.g. the number of people claiming work related benefits.
It is important that you can demonstrate the logic of your approach – i.e. that you can show that the activities you are planning will produce the outputs, which will in turn create the outcomes.