Someone on the Graduate Student and New Evaluator TIG Facebook page posed the following question, “What ONE WORD describes evaluation for you?”
How would you answer that question?
The answer to this question depends on your point of view and training. Asking this question to a group of nonprofit executive directors, funders, someone at an understaffed organization, a new evaluator, a seasoned evaluator or the general public would elicit entirely different responses. Not surprisingly, most of the responses from the TIG members were positive. The responses included:
- IMPROVEMENT
- QUALITY
- USE
- PROGRESS
- ACCOUNTABILITY
- COMPLEX
- VALUABLE
- MESSY
- GROW
- EXCEL
- OPPORTUNITY
So how would you answer this question? Put your response in the comment section. We would especially love to hear from readers who aren’t evaluators.
DR. EVERETT’S USEFUL TIP: Knowing how you define evaluation will help you explain to others about the usefulness and necessity of the evaluation process…kind of like an “elevator speech” about evaluation.