Hiring an Evaluation Consultant

This guide, authored by E Craig for Usable Knowledge outlines the six critical skills and qualities that an evaluation consultant requires to be effective as an evaluator.  it also provides discussion on locating and short lisiting prospective candidates and the reasons not to use a request for proposal (RFP).

The paper outlines four reasons why evaluations can go wrong which are specifically linked to the skills and qualities of the evaluator chosen:

1. "The consultant was difficult to work with (he or she was often inflexible or unavailable or did not get along with staff or thought only in terms of billable hours) 
2. The consultant had a 'process' and was unwilling to collaborate or adequately understand the nonprofit's unique situation- the consultant in other words was a know-it-all
3. The consultant was unable to understand the nonprofit's 'big picture' or the environment in which it operated 
4. The project failed to build the nonprofit's internal capacity or help it grow in a strategic way" (Craig, 2011)