evaluating impact
Evaluating impact is an essential skill in community change. It's necessary for understanding what works, what doesn't and for learning together to understand what needs to happen next.
We are deeply convinced that local and collaborative approaches are a crucial lever in solving complex social issues. Evidence is an important building block in constructing a strong foundation for community change, as it can contribute to strengthening participation, commitment and capacity.
With the right questions and the right set of evaluation principles, values, and tools, communities can make impressive progress on the challenges they are facing.
Article
Strengthening Evaluation Literacy
Over time reframing evaluation in our work to be more participatory and collaborative leads to higher levels of learning, strengthened community relations, and greater transparency.
Mobilizing our experience, passion, and curiosity to promote evaluation as a tool for action, impact and engagement in communities, we accompany individuals and groups in their learning processes.
getting started
Developing Evaluations That Are Used
Evaluating Collective Impact: Five Simple Rules
Shared Measurement: The Why is Clear, the How Continues to Develop
Assessing Readiness for Community-Engaged Evaluation
Collective Impact & Shared Measurement
Developing an Evaluation User Profile
evaluating impact at tamarack
Over the last twenty years, people interested in building strong communities have been making important shifts. Eager to “move the needle” on our quality of life issues, they are experimenting with new ways to create community-wide strategies yielding big changes as opposed to hoping that the efforts of organizations and services end up being more than the sum of their parts. This new approach to community change requires a different way to evaluate.
Current Themes Being Explored:
- Getting to practice and keeping it simple
- Supporting communities in their evaluation processes
- Participatory approaches in virtual mode
- Equity lens on evaluation and learning practice
- Transformation evaluation
- Future thinking
- System mapping
- Communicating impact (impact reports and communication strategies)
At Tamarack, we are experimenting with new ways of measuring change, exploring who is responsible for outcomes, developing methods that can keep up with the fast-moving pace of community change activities, using alternative approaches for getting changemakers involved in the actual assessment process, and using the results to drive new thinking, better strategies and deeper impact.
get in touch
We’re happy to answer questions, discuss community issues and direct you to trusted resources. Get in touch with a specific team member or submit a general inquiry.
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