Evaluate and Evaluate

Summary covering Chapter 6 of Get That Grant Book  by Weisblat

This post will take a deeper look into Step 6: Evaluation of blog post Following the Proper Steps. Demonstrating an effective evaluation of your program is beneficial to the success of not only the grant proposal but also your program. By conducting a proper evaluation analysis of your program, you are showing that the processes and methods have been well thought-out and widely considered. This also displays an effort to deeply think out future actions and tasks, further ensuring the prosperity of the program and its funding.

When beginning to conduct an evaluation, consider the step ladder discussed in the previous blog. The evaluation of your program can be given similarly to that of a survey. The structure of the evaluation can be done in many different formats, such as open-ended questions, fill-in-the-blanks, scaled responses, via email correspondence, interviews, etc. The evaluation survey should be handed to the active planning players in the program, and this is typically done during the meeting for forming this program. The evaluation can be measured in two different ways, process evaluation and production evaluation.

The process evaluation is a survey analysis given to the members after the meeting for creating the stepladder. This form should ask each member questions about the process of the meeting and their contribution.

For example,

• Do you feel all issues were addressed within the meeting?
• Did you have any ideas / suggestions that you did not discuss during the meeting?
• Did you feel everyone’s ideas were equally heard and consider?
• Was time effective spent during the meeting, yes or no?

Similar to the process evaluation, the product evaluation is another way to conduct a survey analysis given to members after the meeting. However, this form explores each member’s view on the structure of the program based on the outline from the stepladder. Simply put, if you and other key players do not believe this program effectively meets the vision, why should the funding agency? Therefore, carefully pick the minds of each member, in order to revise or confirm the success of your program.

For example,

• Is there a clear chain of responsibility and accountability?
• Is this a realistic time frame and goals, Why or Why not?
• What do you believe are some issues with this program? Explain.

These evaluations need to be performed, collected, and documented within your proposal. The process and product evaluations can be both included in your proposal if you desire. Regardless, of which evaluation method you use, write a small report summarizing the data received or attach the completed evaluation to the proposal as a appendix.

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