Your Evaluation Plan

Goals

Your impact campaign’s strategic plan defines what you should measure, so the first step to take in developing your evaluation plan is to go back to your strategic plan to review your campaign goals and ensure they are clear, specific, and achievable during your campaign.

(Note: as your campaign proceeds, you may revisit and refine these goals in response to new information and opportunities.)

Indicators

After you have established your goals, it is time to define the indicators you will use to assess your progress toward achieving them. Ensuring that your goals are specific will make it possible to measure.

For example, a goal to get your issue “on the radar” of decision makers is less specific — and less measurable — than having a goal of ensuring a curated list of decision makers see your film and indicate it has deepened their understanding of what could be done.

Your indicators are not meant to demonstrate that a goal has been achieved but to illustrate progress and change on the path to the goal.

There should be at least one indicator for each goal.

Tools and Techniques

Once you know what you are looking for, you will need to determine what tools and techniques you will use to collect the data you need. This could range from direct observational reporting to audience surveys to comment cards to media and online engagement analysis.

Baseline

You need to know the point from which are starting to be able to claim progress toward where you are heading. Make use of any available data you can to define the starting point on the attitudes, behaviours, and structures you are trying to change; the communities you are trying to build; and/or the innovation you are trying to propel.