Working closely with voluntary and community organisations, large and small, we provide advice, information and ideas on ways to improve performance and best meet the needs of the people who use the services provided. We also work with organisations that fund and support groups in these sectors. We recognise that people do not want their work and efforts to be evaluated, and possibly criticised, by external assessors. We appreciate that this traditional method of evaluation often marginalises the people who are meant to benefit from it. We prefer to carry out what we call ‘participatory evaluation’ which encourages the involvement of all stakeholders. This method ensures a greater ownership of the process, leading to better understanding and implementation of the findings. There are many benefits to evaluation, including:

• The organisation can demonstrate that it is meeting the needs of local people, service users, members of the managing body, funders, volunteers and staff.
• The organisation is able to deal with any weaknesses and build on identified strengths.
• Stakeholders can learn more about the work that they do and where they should be heading in the future.
• With self management tools in place, such as research and evaluation, the organisation will have a stronger case when seeking external funding.

“The Evaluation Trust’s work has helped our organisation to develop and grow.”

“We thought we were doing a good job, but really had no idea how much difference our work was making until we worked with the Trust.”

“This way, we know what needs to change because we have identified the evidence ourselves.”