Evaluate

Intended audience: DataKind Volunteers

Introduction to the Evaluate Stage

This final stage happens between 3 to 24 months after project completion at the time decided upon by the project team. It consists of conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the project results within the partner organization, measuring impact, documenting learning from the evaluation, and determining if there should be next steps based on the results.

Note that the Evaluate Stage varies the most of all the stages between projects, as it greatly depends on both the specifics of the project itself and the capacity of both the project team and partner organization months or years after the project has concluded. The articles in this section describe a variety of possible methods of evaluation, not a standardized step-by-step evaluation process that is applied uniformly to all projects.

DataKind team roles during the Evaluate stage

Data Ambassador: Evaluation may include discovering a new potential DataKind project with the partner, in which case the Data Ambassador is often pulled into the conversation to help check on project sustainability and evaluate technical needs for a possible follow-up project - although there is no obligation for the Data Ambassador to fill this role since the project is complete. Finally, after project impact is measured and no need for further work is identified, the Data Ambassador closes the DataKind team’s cloud environments and implements a data publication or destruction plan aligned with the partner’s wishes. After the cloud environment is closed and data is published or destroyed, the Data Ambassador can fully offboard from the project.
Evaluator : Typically a Data Ambassador, Chapter Leader, or DataKind staff support person, the Evaluator is primarily responsible for conducting and managing the entire Evaluate Stage. They will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the project results within the partner organization, measure impact, document learning from the evaluation, and determine if there should be additional next steps based on the results.

Components of the Evaluate Stage

Collect quantitative data based on the measurement plan to measure project success against intended impact
Collect qualitative data from the project partner on implementation, retention, and impact
Conduct an ethical evaluation of how the project output is being used
Identify if the organization needs additional support and offer to support if DataKind has capacity
Consolidate findings in project evaluation report
Share evaluation learnings internally and potentially externally
Create and implement data publication and/or destruction plan
Close down DataKind team cloud environments
MUST DO: Evaluate Checkpoint: Evaluator checks in with advisory team to review evaluation

The Evaluate stage enables us to make sure the solution actually solved for the partner’s needs. This is why evaluation is a crucial stage to make sure the assistance we provide to nonprofits is actually valuable to them.

Contributer(s): Rachel Wells