Evaluation

After your communication and marketing efforts are underway, board members, donors, and other interested parties may ask you a probing question: “What did all this work accomplish?” It’s a valid question, because evaluating the impact of your efforts – and making the necessary adjustments – should be an ongoing part of any communications program.

Some questions to ask about your organization’s communications include:

• How will we know we are having an impact?
• Are there different indicators for short-term and long-term impact?
• Are our outcome goals in line with our theory of change?
• What specific actions/beliefs/outcomes will we monitor as indices of improvement?
• Have we set our goals too high for the budget associated with our campaign