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Needs assessments are a foundational step in program development. We have a long history of helping organizations and agencies figure out not only what is missing, but what strengths and assets already exist to ensure their programs address the most important issues facing their communities. We use a variety of methods—including surveys, focus groups, interviews, and secondary data analysis—to document and understand both needs and assets. By painting this comprehensive picture, we lay the groundwork for effective, informed decisions in program design and funding allocations.

We use developmental evaluation for programs that are in their early stages or navigating complex, evolving environments (for example, anything happening in March 2020). Unlike traditional evaluation, we don't wait for a program to be fully formed. Instead, we embed ourselves with the team as a "critical friend," providing real-time, continuous feedback. This allows our partners to make rapid adjustments and informed decisions as they go, fostering a culture of learning and innovation. By working with the program team to help clarify systems and processes, we help programs adapt to changing circumstances and seize emergent opportunities to achieve their goals.

In a process evaluation, we focus on understanding how a program is being implemented and delivered. Our work involves documenting and analyzing the program’s activities, fidelity to its design, and the engagement of participants. We use this data to determine if the program is operating as intended and to pinpoint any barriers or facilitators to success. This information can help explain why a program may or may not be achieving its outcomes and provides clear, actionable steps for improving efficiency and delivery. In some instances, we’ve helped partners document their program for replication, through the co-creation of implementation guides.

Summative evaluations are often what people think of when they are asked about evaluation. Unlike formative (i.e., needs assessments, developmental, and process) evaluations, which help to improve a program as it is being designed or implemented, summative evaluations measure the extent to which project objectives were achieved, typically at the end of a program or specific funding cycle or after. These findings empower partners to make informed decisions about the future of their projects and to communicate their successes to stakeholders and funders.      

We measure the results of our partners' work through outcome and impacts evaluation, which serve distinct but interconnected purposes. An outcome evaluation assesses the short-term, immediate changes that result from a program, such as a change in knowledge, skills, or behavior. For example, we might measure if a workshop successfully increased participants' understanding of a topic. An impact evaluation looks at the broader, long-term effects of a program on a community or system. Much of our impact work to date has been done in collaboration with Gigi Owen and Alison Meadow, who established a framework for assessing societal impacts of environmental research. 

We can help make your survey data as useful as possible, from building automated, continually updating reports and dashboards to more advanced statistical analyses and assessments of change over time. Whether you surveyed a few dozen people or a few thousand, we can help you think through what questions you hope to answer with your analyses and design the products you need to communicate your results. 

Our team has a wealth of experience when it comes to qualitative analysis. We can help with building a coding scheme, developing documentation and training methods for coders, and determining the best approach to reporting key findings, whether you prefer to take a grounded or a priori approach.