Developing Evaluation Plans for Grant Proposals Course

Many funders require their grant seekers to include evaluation plans in their funding proposals. All funding proposals can be strengthened by a compelling evaluation plan that conveys how success will be measured. If you have a great idea for a new program that will make a difference for the people you serve, but you're mystified about how to evaluate it, you're not alone.

In this course, you will learn four key steps for developing a strong evaluation plan tailored to your program. You will learn how to:

• identify and communicate what your evaluation will focus on
• describe how you will collect and interpret data
• demonstrate your organization's commitment to sharing and using information from the evaluation
• explain how the evaluation will be staffed, whether internally externally.

Using a practice case, you will build an evaluation plan and see how it all comes together in a succinct summary that will bolster your overall proposal.

After completing this course, you'll have a practical strategy for developing a strong evaluation plan to help make your next funding proposal stand out.

This course is designed for individuals tasked with developing evaluation plans for funding proposals. Previous evaluation experience is not necessary. If you're an experienced evaluator, you'll find useful tips, examples, and strategies that can help you develop better evaluations plans, building on your current know-how.

Time commitment

This course should take about 45 - 60 minutes to complete.

Instructors

Lori Wingate and Kelly Robertson developed this course with instructional design support from Jen Driscol at Allen Interactions. Lori and Kelly work at The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University (WMU), and they have PhDs in interdisciplinary evaluation from WMU. They have written many evaluation plans for proposals submitted to an array of different funders and served on funding agency review panels. Together, they have conducted research on evaluation plans included in proposals to a federal agency, spanning 17 years.

Lori has led 75+ workshops and webinars on diverse evaluation topics, including several on developing evaluation plans. You can read more about Lori here. Kelly has extensive experience conducting social justice-focused evaluations and has been featured in webinars hosted by the American Evaluation Association, including its Graduate Education Diversity Initiative, EvaluATE, and the Vera Institute. You can read more about Kelly here.