Steps to take to prepare for evaluation

Taking a few early steps to make your social enterprise evaluation successful will ensure that your time and resources are used wisely. While specific evaluation goals and needs between social enterprises vary, current research identifies four common broad steps:

Engage with a variety of stakeholders to develop a shared vision of what the desired impact is, and how your social enterprise or a specific program will contribute to this.^1,2,3,4,5,6
Establish the primary purpose of evaluation, and identify who the audience/users of your evaluation findings are.^{1,2,4,5,6,7,8}
Design and implement evaluation processes that align with your impact measurement needs and purposes, and provide credible evidence of impact.^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}
Use and share your evaluation findings.^1,2,3,5,6,8

Engage with the relevant people

Engaging with the people or communities your social enterprise seeks to benefit is an important step in building informed understanding with your stakeholders about what the social impact aims are, and how your social enterprise will contribute to achieving them.^1,2,3,4,5,6 (see What is Theory of Change and Why it Matters).

Establish the evaluation purpose

Consider the main purpose and audience for your evaluation. Is it mainly for internal purposes so your team can learn and improve on current social enterprise activities? Or for external purposes like communicating with the communities you serve and/or your customers and funders? This will help to determine the evaluation scope and approach.^{1,2,4,5,6,7,8}

Design and implement accordingly

Your evaluation design and implementation should be informed by your engagement with stakeholders, and aligned with the agreed social impact goals and evaluation needs of your social enterprise. The chosen evaluation measures should have a clear relationship to your goals and provide strong evidence of the outcomes achieved.^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}

Put your evaluation findings to work

Once your evaluation has been implemented and the relevant data gathered, it's time to analyse your findings and use them for your established purposes - such as improving your social enterprise operations or sharing evidence of your impact with others.^1,2,3,5,6,8

1. Mouchamps, H. (2014). 'Weighing elephants with kitchen scales: The relevance of traditional performance measurement tools for social enterprises'. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 63(6), 727-745. doi:10.1108/IJPPM- 09-2013-0158

2. Szijarto, B., Milley, P., Svensson, K., & Cousins, J. B. (2018). 'On the evaluation of social innovations and social enterprises: Recognizing and integrating two solitudes in the empirical knowledge base'. Evaluation & Program Planning, 66, 20-32. doi:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2017.08.010

3. Clark, C., & Brennan, L. (2012). 'Entrepreneurship with social value: A conceptual model for performance measurement'. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 18(2), 17-39.

4. Lane, M. D., & Casile, M. (2011). 'Angels on the head of a pin. The SAC framework for performance measurement in social entrepreneurship ventures'. Social Enterprise Journal, 7(3), 238. doi:10.1108/17508611111182395

5. McLoughlin, J., Kaminski, J., Sodagar, B., Khan, S., Harris, R., Arnaudo, G., & Mc Brearty, S. (2009). 'A strategic approach to social impact measurement of social enterprises: The SIMPLE methodology'. Social Enterprise Journal, 5(2), 154-178. doi:10.1108/17508610910981734

6. Vo, A. T., Christie, C. A., & Rohanna, K. (2016). 'Understanding evaluation practice within the context of social investment'. Evaluation, 22(4), 470-488. doi:10.1177/1356389016669447

7. Barraket, J., & Yousefpour, N. (2013). 'Evaluation and social impact measurement amongst small to medium social enterprises: process, purpose and value'. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 72(4), 447-458.

8. Bengo, I., Arena, M., Azzone, G., & Calderini, M. (2015). 'Indicators and metrics for social business: a review of current approaches'. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 7(1), 1-24. doi:10.1080/19420676.2015.1049286