I am happy to share my reflections from our evaluation program with the constituents of the Trinity Grants Program. An Emerging Picture Evaluation is internally motivated work essential to the task of leading an institution or program to successful completion of its goals. As internally motivated work, the task of evaluation rests in the hands of project leaders. What is evaluated, how, and for whom, must be clearly defined by those responsible for building a viable program. Evaluation may be required by a funder or accrediting agency, but if evaluation is already taking place, this external requirement is not an additional burden.
Evaluation is work that exists alongside program planning and implementation.
Ongoing formative evaluation allows project leaders and staff to gain an accurate picture of what is taking place during a program, make mid-course corrections, and ensure that program goals are being met. Evaluation, as a formative ongoing dimension of an organization's work, is primarily about learning. As a means of learning, evaluation builds the reflective practices of an organization, the habits of mind that keep leaders and staff alert to the dynamic range of factors that contribute to a program's strengths and weaknesses. An evaluation is guided by a set of questions, focused around the goals and hoped-for results of a program, and it provides a set of answers to those questions by identifying the significant and important factors that contribute to how the program impacts its participants as well as the community and sponsoring organization. Evaluation also serves as a means of drawing stakeholders into an organization.