Evaluating Projects of a NORC Program

A NORC program incorporates a well-planned evaluation into projects as early as possible in their development.

Committing to an evaluation from the earliest planning stages of a project enables a NORC program to collect baseline data, document activities, and measure change over time.  It also allows early findings to be more readily incorporated into the project design.  Assessing the effectiveness of a project after it is well underway is much harder to do and not nearly as useful.  

The purpose of evaluation is to gather the information needed to find out whether a project is doing what it set out to do and to identify opportunities to make improvements.  A well-designed evaluation complements and supports the goals, objectives, and implementation plan developed for the project itself.  

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