Evaluation is often that last little paragraph of a grant proposal that we throw in because we know we're supposed to. However, a good communications strategy recognizes that evaluation is what it takes in order to know if all your hard work is achieving the results you seek! Keep evaluation in mind as you create your communications plan and when you apply for a grant to support your communications efforts.

Conducting a thorough evaluation of your communications effort includes gathering quantitative data as well as qualitative information.

• How many people did we reach with our email newsletter? (quantitative)
• Did our message have the effect we hoped it would on those people? (qualitative)

A complete evaluation of your communications efforts will incorporate evaluating your outreach materials, including your Web site. To be effective, your Web site has to be easy to read and navigate. Visit the resources below for tips on how to evaluate the usability of your Web site and to learn more about evaluation procedures in general.

Tools & Resources:
Use these how-to articles and tip sheets to evaluate your communications effort.

Outcome Measurement In Nonprofit Organizations: Current Practices and Recommendations
With nonprofits feeling the pressure to measure and report the success of projects to funders, the Independent Sector report, Outcome Measurement In Nonprofit Organizations: Current Practices and Recommendations, offers key findings on the current state of nonprofit outcome measurement. The executive summary of the report outlines a series of recommendation on how to collect and analyze outcomes.

Evaluating Your Outreach Efforts
This excerpt from a Benton Foundation publication titled, "Making Television Matter," outlines why you should evaluate a media project and lists several guidelines for evaluation, including how to hire an outside evaluator and how to conduct one in-house.

InnoNet's Workstation for Innovative Nonprofits
This free, online tool helps you build program and evaluation plans as well as fundraising proposals and budgets.

Usability Matters
A good Web site follows a logical structure and is easy to use. Evaluating the usability of your site will help you figure out if it meets the needs of your visitors.

Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users
From Jakob Neilson's Alertbox, explains how effective small-scale Web usability testing can be. See also his Voodoo Usability.