A Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Evaluation Questions

Evaluation participants are more actively and meaningfully engaged in evaluation projects when they are involved early and often in framing the project's questions, notes a report released by FSG Social Impact Advisors and its Strategic Learning and valuation Center, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In A Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Evaluation Questions, the researchers note that soliciting input from stakeholders early in the process results in more successfully addressing specific stakeholder interests for improving program effectiveness, affecting policy decisions, and instituting behavioral change. This practical guide describes a five-step process for engaging stakeholders in developing evaluation questions, and includes four worksheets to facilitate the planning and implementation of a stakeholder engagement process.

Step 1: Prepare for stakeholder engagement.
Step 2: Identify potential stakeholders. This section is accompanied by Planning Worksheet #1.
Step 3: Prioritize the list of stakeholders. Planning Worksheet #2 guides this process.
Step 4: Consider potential stakeholders’ motivations for participating.
Step 5: Select a stakeholder engagement strategy. Planning Worksheets #3 and #4 accompany this section.

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