What Are Performance Measurement and Program Evaluation?

What Are the Basic Steps?

Appendixes

Conducting program evaluations is an integral part of operating and managing a program because it helps to examine whether you are meeting the needs of your client base and achieving the overall goals of your program.

Organizations that receive funding from either government or foundations are often required to design and conduct a process and/or outcome evaluation of their programs. The plan can include the following:

• A comprehensive needs assessment.
• Clearly stated goals and objectives that link program activities and objectives.
• Clearly defined performance measures.
• Information on all of the resources that will be devoted to fulfilling this requirement.
• A plan to address the requirements related to data confidentiality and the protection of human subjects who may be involved in a needs assessment and/or program evaluation.

This guide will help you—

• Develop an evaluation plan for collecting data on performance measures.
• Establish measureable goals and objectives.
• Design and conduct the program evaluation to continuously assess your program’s progress in achieving its established goals and objectives.
• Identify measures to reflect the impact of your program’s activities.
• Use the results to refine and improve services.