How to monitor and evaluate your
community project
So you've set up your project. But how can you tell if it's going well?
This guide tells you all you need to know about monitoring and evaluating what you're doing
- from why it's important to what tools you can use.
What is monitoring and evaluation?
Monitoring means regularly collecting information on your
project and analysing it to see how things are going. To do
this, you can look at quantitative information, hard facts such
as how much money and time you've spent on the project
and how many homes you've reached. You can also consider
qualitative information - the less measurable things, like
whether the project is running smoothly and if people
involved are satisfied. Proper monitoring will make it easy to
evaluate your project when it ends. It will also give you a
basis to make decisions on how the project should go
forward and to make changes along the way if you find
something isn't going well.
Evaluation is a review of the whole project, looking at its
overall value and effect. It usually takes place when the
project is complete. You can use the information you've
collected during monitoring. Doing an evaluation will help
you understand how and where your project has been
successful. It will let you see how well funds have been
used, and what the benefits of your project have been to
those involved. You can use this information to improve your
future projects.
Why is monitoring and evaluation
important?
There are several reasons why monitoring and evaluating
your project is particularly important for community
based projects:
Accountability
When you win funding from an organisation, they will usually
make it compulsory for you to report back on what you're
doing and what you're spending their money on. You might
have agreed targets with them, such as the number of
people your project will reach within a given time. You'll need
to monitor your project regularly to collect this information.
To secure future funding
Funding bodies will want to see concrete evidence of the
effect your group has to help them decide whether to give
you money. Ongoing monitoring and evaluating of your
projects will provide this. It can provide evidence of what a
project has achieved and what might be achieved as this
project continues in the future.
To check the project's progress against your original plans
It can be easy to lose sight of the original aims you had for
your project. Monitoring it on a monthly, quarterly or yearly
basis and checking whether you're still on course to achieve
your goals will prevent this. It will also help you keep an eye
on whether you're keeping to your timescales and budgets.
To learn from your experience
Proper monitoring and evaluation of your project means you
can see what has worked well and what hasn't. You can
then use this information to improve future projects or
funding applications.
To motivate staff and volunteers
Showing your volunteers and staff real, concrete evidence of
the impact their hard work has had will make them feel
good. It can also encourage them to continue working with
your group, or to take on new sustainability projects. It may
also spur them on to keep changing their own behaviour.
How can you monitor your
project's progress?
Before you begin
monitoring, it's important
to think about exactly
what you want your
project to achieve. Then
you can look at how
you're going to monitor
each of those areas.
Doing this thinking
upfront should mean
that you won't miss opportunities to
gather information along the way, and you'll be able to do a
complete evaluation at the end.
A lot of your monitoring will focus on the hard facts: how
much is being spent, and how many homes or people your
project is reaching. However, the qualitative side is important
too. Are the expectations of the people involved in your
project being met? What would they like to see done better?
energysavingtrust.org.uk/community
There are many ways you can gather qualitative
information:
Questionnaire or survey
These are simple to put together and distribute. You can
reach a lot of people quickly and easily. You can have
questionnaires with multiple choice boxes people can tick,
and you can ask them to give you more detailed replies.
The questionnaire can be anonymous if you think you'll
get better responses. However, you need to make the
questions as clear as possible so that you get exactly the
information you want. You'll need to analyse the
information once you've collected all the questionnaires to
get an overall picture of what people think. Questionnaires
can be especially useful for monitoring attitudes or
behaviour change.
Feedback forms
If you're holding an event, why not ask people to fill in a
feedback form at the end? The event will be fresh in their
mind, so you should get accurate responses. However,
some people might rush the form if they're in a hurry to
leave, so do offer them the option of emailing it back to
you. You can use their feedback to improve your future
events.
Interviews
Although they can be time consuming, interviews carried
out face-to-face or on the phone are a great way to get
detailed information on what people think of your project.
Focus groups
Getting a group of people together to discuss your project
is an easy way to gather information. Bringing a group
together, rather than just interviewing individuals, means
people can spark new ideas in each other, and you often
get better responses. However, you need to think carefully
about the information you want to collect from your focus
group, and continually steer the conversation in that
direction. It's easy to let the discussion drift off track.
How can you evaluate your project?
Case studies
Asking yourself the following questions before beginning your
evaluation will help you do it well:
All over the country, community groups are monitoring and
evaluating their projects using the tools and ideas above.
Here's how three groups have done it:
What is the purpose of your evaluation? What do you
want your evaluation to demonstrate?
Who are you evaluating for? Is it for your funders, the
community, your organisation?
What are you going to evaluate? Which elements of the
project do you intend to look at?
How are you going to evaluate? What methods are you
going to use to carry out your evaluation? You should use
a range, and collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
How will you collect the data you need? Is the data
available? If you need data from across the project, have
you set up monitoring to capture it?
What will you do with the data you collect? Data by itself
is just data; you'll need to analyse it to come to a
conclusion about what it shows. You'll also need to
consider how you're going to present the analysis and
your conclusions.
How will you act on your analysis? All too often the
findings of monitoring and evaluation end up gathering
dust on a shelf. Make sure your findings see the light of
day. Use them to plan for the future.
Important points to remember
Before starting your project, consider what you'll want to
evaluate at the end and what you'll need to monitor to
do this.
Don't just focus on statistics in your monitoring and
analysis. It's just as important to get qualitative
information.
Be realistic about how long it's going to take to see
effects from your project. Don't expect instant results.
Monitoring and evaluation should be seen as something
positive by everyone involved in the project, not
something to worry about.
energysavingtrust.org.uk/community
Warmer Improved Somerset Homes
Making sure older people get what they're entitled to.
That's what the Warmer Improved Somerset Homes
(WISH) project is all about.
WISH helps older people to apply for Government benefits
to which they are entitled in order to make their homes
more energy efficient. For example, everyone over 70 is
entitled to free loft and wall insulation. WISH also carry
out some home improvements.
Monitoring and evaluation was important to WISH from
the start. They immediately decided what quantitative data
they were going to collect, including the number of people
given benefits advice and the number of repairs done to
homes. This helped WISH get funding from the Big Lottery
Fund, who ask for concrete evidence of the effects their
funded projects have. They knew WISH would be able to
provide it, so were happy to give them funding.
WISH also collects qualitative information from the people
the project helps. They want to find out things like
whether people's homes feel warmer. They gather data
using two questionnaires: one which they give out when
they first make contact with the older person and one
after they help them. WISH spends time building a
relationship with the older people, this helps to get them
to be honest and open in the questionnaires. That way, the
information gathered is as useful as possible.
Hampshire Solar Challenge
Working Herts
If you're looking for a really imaginative approach to
teaching children about renewable energy, look no further
than Hampshire Solar Challenge. Through the project,
children learn about solar power by building and racing
their own solar-powered cars. The race has been an
annual event in the county since 2001.
Environmental and training charity, Working Herts, helps
the environment and the local community in Hertfordshire
and South Bedfordshire. They fit energy and water saving
equipment in homes, and they train local unemployed
young people to do the work, giving them a job and skills.
Monitoring and evaluating the event not only means that
it gets better every year, but positive feedback also helps
the organisers to make a strong case for funding.
Hampshire Solar Challenge collects quantitative data
about the number of children and schools involved and
the number of people who come along to the race. They
also give a detailed four-page evaluation form to the
schools involved at the end of the project, so they can
point out any problems.
Hampshire Solar
Challenge collects
qualitative information
too, on whether the
children enjoyed the
project and whether
it raised their
awareness of
renewable energy.
This is done
through open
discussions in meetings attended by everyone
involved in the project. Hampshire Solar Challenge then
uses the information to look at how they can improve the
project for the next year.
energysavingtrust.org.uk/community
Quality is very important to the organisation, so
monitoring customer satisfaction is crucial. Working Herts
uses the information they collect to shape how they train
the young people involved.
Working Herts gives the owner of each property they work
on a customer form asking for their opinion on every part
of the service. The form comes with a return envelope
with a rubber stamped address and postage stamp,
rather than a printed address and freepost mark. Working
Herts do this to make respondents feel like they're
sending their form back to real people, rather than a
machine. This `humanisation' has helped them achieve an
impressive 60% return rate.
The forms are then evaluated and used to plan for the
future. Every form (1,000 are returned each year) is read
by the chief executive. He then passes them on to the
trainees, who read and discuss them at a weekly meeting.
The trainees find this very useful, and are able to use the
responses to improve the way they work - the feedback
forms have become an important training tool.
Support from Green Communities
If you'd like more information or help with monitoring and
evaluation, the Green Communities team is here to help:
We can give you information about and put you in contact
with other community projects with experience of
monitoring and evaluation.
Our Community Carbon Footprint Tool lets you measure
your community’s carbon footprint and see how it
changes over the course of your project. Measuring your
footprint at the beginning can help you decide what your
priorities should be to reduce it. It can also help you set
achievable targets.
You can apply for support from your local Energy Saving
Trust advice centre. Our expert advisors can help you
work out your community's collective carbon footprint
and put together and implement a plan to reduce it. To
speak to your nearest Energy Saving Trust advice centre,
call 0800 512 012.
For more information on Green Communities, visit
energysavingtrust.org.uk/community or call
0844 848 0077.
Energy Saving Trust
21 Dartmouth Street
London SW1H 9BP
Tel 0844 848 0077
energysavingtrust.org.uk
GC312 © Energy Saving Trust October 2010. E&EO
To get in touch call 0844 848 0077
or email [email protected]