Why Evaluate?

“Evaluation is critical. It is a way of documenting to funders, the public, and your team how effective your project has been since its inception. Evaluation activities can also help you provide important new information to community members about a local problem so that they can become partner in addressing the problem.”
- Brian Wolcott, Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council, Oregon

“[Establishing a monitoring program has helped us] know for sure if our work plan and implementation is addressing the problems of the decline in species and if we truly have the opportunity to bring back many of the populations
that have been extirpated.”
- The Nature Conservancy, Conasauga River Basin of Georgia

Evaluation helps you achieve your objectives as efficiently and effectively as possible. Insight gained through evaluation enables you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your approach and adjust accordingly: which aspects of your project work, which don’t, and why? Knowledge of the effectiveness of your strategies can help you maximize the impact of your limited resources.

Evaluation can clarify your project’s role within a complex system. Achieving specific on-the-ground ecological and social changes requires a clear picture of success and how to get there. However, it is likely that you work within complex ecological and social systems where simultaneous activities and a variety of circumstances – from natural disturbances to political cycles – are affecting the status of natural resources, the economy, and the community. Evaluation activities give you a necessary overview of the system and your project’s role within it. This helps you define your desired outcomes and reveals how your efforts directly and indirectly affect these outcomes.

Evaluation improves group dynamics and processes. By facilitating dialogue among people and organizations involved in the project, evaluation activities can help build understanding and support for your project. It can lead to clearer task assignments and greater accountability among project participants.

Evaluation builds support by documenting success. Being able to demonstrate success can promote support from the community and political officials. It can also enhance funding opportunities, because you can show donors how the conservation project is structured and document the positive effects that management is having on the landscape.

Evaluation helps you deal with uncertainty and change. Linked to the practice of adaptive management, evaluation involves learning from experience and adapting activities accordingly. This approach can foster higher levels of on-the-ground success in the face of unavoidable uncertainties and inevitable change.

How do we know that evaluation matters?
Research on over 100 ecosystem management initiatives across the country indicates that projects that engaged in evaluation activities report significantly greater outcomes of their efforts. Setting clear goals, creating systematic ways to monitor change, and implementing adaptive management approaches improve how groups manage their projects, and in turn make it more likely that they meet their objectives.

With all these benefits, why don’t groups carry out evaluation more often?

By structuring the process according to your needs, you can overcome many perceived barriers and reap the benefits of evaluation. While some evaluations are complex and require significant time and funds, often evaluation can be accomplished using resources and information that are already available. Furthermore, a lack of evaluation often can be more expensive and time consuming than integrating simple evaluation activities into your project’s way of doing business. This guide leads you through the process of evaluation and provides assistance in how to engage in evaluation activities that are both feasible and relevant for your project.