Getting started with evaluation
Evaluation is the process of checking whether your community activity achieved what it set out to do, so you can show its impact and improve it next time.
Why evaluate your community activities?
A good evaluation helps you:
- check how your activities went against the goals you set at the start
- assess how effective your activities were
- describe your impact to a wider audience, including current and potential funders
- identify what to improve next time
- recognise your successes and how to repeat them
- stay motivated to build on what you’ve achieved.
How to plan your evaluation
Plan your evaluation with your activity
Write your evaluation plan at the same time as your delivery plan. Your activity’s goal should be measurable, and planning early means you can design your activity so it’s easy to collect the data you need to show your outcomes.
Set your aims and objectives with the 5Ws
Start by being clear about what you want to do and what you want to achieve. This helps you deliver your activity safely and effectively, and track its success. One way is to answer the 5Ws:
- What do you want to happen? (your activity)
- Who will it happen with? (the group you’ll collect data from)
- Why will it happen? (the outcome you hope to achieve for the issue you identified, for example, reducing risky drinking by increasing knowledge about drinking harms)
- When will it happen? (the time frame, for example, over six months)
- Where will it happen? (the location, for example, the local community centre).
Next steps
Once you know your aims, decide how you’ll measure success, then choose how you’ll collect your data:
Last reviewed: 1 November 2026