Ongoing monitoring and evaluation are essential to determine if you’ve achieved your desired outcomes and to assess the effectiveness and impact of your intervention and the quality of service delivery.
It is a common misperception that evaluation starts only at the end of a project. Although conducting the evaluation is Step 5 of the SPF, planning how you will collect baseline information and track outcomes over time should be part of your strategic plan.
In addition, since your evaluation will ultimately affect the sustainability of your intervention, you should have a plan for securing and maintaining the commitment of all the partners involved—community members, agencies, etc. Fostering these relationships makes it more likely that these folks will continue to provide political support, cooperation, volunteers, and other resources on a long-term, ongoing basis.
Finally, your evaluation plan should monitor how well your group is functioning and identify areas for improvement.