Determine how the evaluation results will be used and by whom. Identify resources available for the evaluation, including money, staff time, and expertise. Begin developing an evaluation plan.

1. Identify and engage evaluation stakeholders. Plan for how they will be involved in, and will contribute to, the evaluation.

2. Describe the partnership’s members, activities, products, expectations, and outcomes. Develop a logic model to depict the partnership’s theory of change (i.e., how activities will accomplish goals). Identify the stage of development of the partnership. Identify contextual factors that will impact effectiveness. These will be helpful in developing evaluation questions.

3. Brainstorm and then finalize a list of questions the evaluation will answer related to effective processes, partnership activities, and expected outcomes. These will form the basis of an evaluation plan.

4. Determine how you will answer the evaluation questions by identifying indicators, data sources, how you will collect data, and a timeline for data collection. Identify who is responsible for seeing that the work gets done. Pilot test tools. Collect the data.

5. Enter and check the data for errors. Analyze the data in a way that will make sense to the program partners. Interpret the data to reflect the current context. Consider and document factors that may affect or bias the findings. Compare findings with benchmarks or with what others have found.

6. Distribute and use evaluation results. Report often along the way. Tailor the format and the mechanism of reporting to the specific audience. (Evaluation, n.d.)

3 take-aways from this list of examples of how evaluation strategies can enhance partnerships:

1. Evaluation strategies will spell out all activities, products, involvement and outcome expectations for all the partners so there is no confusion about who is doing what.

2. All partners maintain the same vision and goal for the partnership; evaluation also keeps the partners on course to complete their agreed upon expectations.

3. These evaluation strategies can be constant along the way to keep the partnership running as smooth as possible.