Monitoring and evaluation

The Foundation is interested in monitoring and evaluation to help us learn from our grant-making. By these we mean:

Monitoring is about keeping track. It is primarily a tool to help people work out whether the work is on course and going well. Monitoring involves deciding what information will be useful, setting up systems to collect it, collecting the information, then reviewing it.

Evaluation assesses whether the work achieved what it set out to do. It may also pick up achievements that had not been anticipated. Evaluation may also look at achievements relative to cost. It should consider strengths and weaknesses of the project and analyse success and failure. Knowing something did not work may be less satisfying than demonstrating success but it may be just as valuable.