Provides a blueprint for designing and conducting program evaluations. Written primarily for project directors responsible for ongoing evaluation of W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded projects, this handbook can be used with or without the assistance of an external evaluator. Part 1 presents an overview of Kellogg funding philosophy and expectations for evaluation; a summary of the essential characteristics of the Foundation’s evaluation approach; a discussion of the importance of using evaluation to improve programs in the human services and education fields, and not just to prove that initiatives work; and an explanation of evaluation strategies at the project, cluster, and programming and policymaking levels. Part 2 focuses on project-level evaluation and its 3 components: context evaluation, implementation evaluation, and outcome evaluation. Staff also get guidance on such keys steps in the overall evaluation as: (1) preparing for the evaluation, including identifying stakeholders and establishingthe evaluation team, developing evaluation questions and a budget, and selecting an evaluator; (2) designing and conducting the evaluation, including determining data-collection methods and collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data; and (3) communicating findings and using results. By also reading case studies of Foundation grantees, project directors see real examples of ways in which evaluation can support projects.
