1. INTRODUCTION TO THE TOOLKIT

   • About the Toolkit
   • Toolkit Contents
   • Using the Toolkit
   • Case Study Background

2. INTRODUCTION TO EVALUATION

   • Defining Evaluation
   • Purpose of Evaluation
   • Types of Evaluation
   • Challenges to Conducting an Evaluation

   • Who Should Conduct the Evaluation

     • Assessing Readiness
     • Using a Team Approach
     • Using External Evaluators

   • Considerations for Planning

     • Human Subjects Protections
     • Cultural Competency
     • Budgeting for Evaluation
     • Working with Funders

   • Framework for Evaluation

     • Framework Components
     • Evaluation Standards

3. PLAN YOUR EVALUATION

   • Step 1: Engage Stakeholders

     • Engage Stakeholders
     • Identifying Key Stakeholders
     • Engaging Stakeholders
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 2: Develop a Logic Model

     • Develop a Logic Model
     • What is a Program Description?
     • Introducing Logic Models
     • Creating a Logic Model for Evaluation
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 3: Focus the Evaluation

     • Focus the Evaluation
     • Decide What to Evaluate
     • Develop Evaluation Questions
     • What Are Indicators?
     • Start the Evaluation Plan
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 4a: Plan Data Collection

     • Plan Data Collection
     • Identify Data Sources
     • Select Data Collection Methods
     • Tools and Resources

   • Finalize Your Evaluation Plan

     • Identify the Person Responsible and a Timeline
     • Review Your Evaluation Plan
     • Tools and Resources

4. IMPLEMENT YOUR EVALUATION

   • Introduction
   • Review Your Evaluation Plan

   • Step 4b: Collect Data

     • Design Data Collection Instruments
     • Additional Considerations in Data Collection
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 5: Analyze and Interpret Data

     • Analyze and Interpret Data
     • Organize the Data
     • Analyze the Data and Synthesize Results
     • Interpret the Results
     • Identify Limitations
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 6: Share Results

     • Share Results
     • Develop Recommendations
     • Communicate the Findings
     • Follow-up
     • Tools and Resources

When

The last thing in developing your communication plan is deciding when to share results with your stakeholders. Consider the following as you make your decision:

• Ensuring timeliness and relevance: It is important to share findings while the data are still relevant and those who participated will see the results of their participation. While you want to allow enough time to adequately analyze and interpret your data, don't let too much time to elapse so that your findings are no longer relevant.

• Maximizing usefulness and impact: Knowing when the information might be most useful to your stakeholders will help maximize its usefulness and impact. For example, your board of directors could benefit from seeing the evaluation results before it begins a strategic planning process. Staff could benefit from evaluation findings before they apply for future funding or create their workplan for the next year.

• Coordinating with other events: Coordinating the presentation or release of your results with other upcoming events or functions in the community can be another way to maximize usefulness and impact. For example, say a smoke-free campaign will be occurring in your community and you have just evaluated a successful smoking cessation program; you could join a community meeting on the smoke-free campaign and share your results. If your evaluation findings are related to a topic being discussed in the media, you might time your release with a big news story to reach additional audiences and maximize the impact of your findings.

• Frequency and sequence: Typically, if you want your evaluation findings to be useful, one written report is not enough. You may want to plan to get the message out several times in a variety of ways to get your evaluation findings heard. This does not mean that you need to create multiple comprehensive reports – rather, you may want to present your findings in smaller, more easily digestible pieces. Additionally, it is important to think about the sequencing of sharing findings, taking care to inform your stakeholders of the results before moving on to the general public.

ERC Worksheet 7: Communicating Results
The final step is to determine how you will communicate the results of your evaluation. Worksheet 7 walks you through the questions introduced in this section to develop a communication plan to share your findings with important stakeholders.

Click on the PDF documents in the sidebar to see examples of how this step was completed for our case study sites.