There are several key considerations in deciding how to focus evaluation: 1) specifically what the group wants to learn about its work; 2) what kinds of questions are “answerable” at a particular point in time in the flow of one’s work – keeping in mind reasonable expectations of progress towards racial equity; 3) accountability to constituents, funders, and the group’s own goals and expectations; 4) what decisions are to be informed by results of evaluations; and 5) when information needs to be provided to inform those decisions. The answers to these questions should drive decisions about evaluation questions, methods, and timing. While these questions may seem straightforward, different stakeholders often have very different assumptions about what is most important to look at, and when.

One tip in designing evaluations of complex racial equity work is for a group to bring to the surface all the questions that as many stakeholders as possible, from different positions in the work, hope the evaluation can answer. Then evaluators can figure out which ones are answerable at given points in time. For instance, a [...]