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Establishing: Supporting Your Cause With Evaluation Data

Most public service sectors are encouraged to demonstrate measurable outcomes. Funding sources and taxpayers are interested in knowing that their contributions have resulted in the outcomes initially planned. There may be a demand for statistics and other facts to substantiate results. Some response partners respond more positively to your clearly defined budget than your vision statement. Conversely, some operate with less structured frameworks and may be more interested in narrative information. However, most people respond well to demonstrations of responsible stewardship. It is a good idea to develop a repertoire of ways to show how your MRC is being successfully managed and utilized.

Some examples of evaluating program success include:

Compiling and broadcasting success stories. Track and document the activities and accomplishments of your MRC unit. Regardless of your progress, these success stories can be used for recruitment, media coverage, and for updating local officials, partners, and other community champions. Narratives are a compact form of communicating your MRC’s success and role in the community and serve as a support to more quantitative reports of success.
Establishing objectives and plans. Establish objectives and plans for achievement with a timeline and institute a review process to determine progress in these particular areas. The results of this review are useful for reporting unit progress to other interested parties.

Objectives can cover multiple operational areas of your MRC, including: partnering, volunteer recruitment and training, activation plans, exercises, database development, fundraising, etc.

Tracking volunteer statistics (see the previous section on databases for more information). Access to these statistics can help support your funding requests or other support, as it demonstrates your volunteers’ contributions as in-kind services to their communities.

It may be useful to know which volunteers have helped your community, in terms of expense, by multiplying their donated hours by their normal professional rates. The results should be impressive and leverage additional funds and resources.

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Last Updated on 8/23/2006