A Short Primer on Innovative Evaluation Reporting

The information provided was supplied by Alice Macfarlan. 

Authors and their affiliation

Kylie Hutchinson, independent evaluation consultant and trainer with Community Solutions Planning & Evaluation​.

Year of publication 

2017

Type of resource

Guide

Key features

This book starts by walking readers through an overview of good reporting, covering principles for more effective reporting (targeting your audience; developing a communications plan; layering your content; and reordering your key messages), how to make content 'sticky', and common errors in reporting. It then outlines a range of reporting options that can be used in place of (or in addition to) the evaluation report that includes:

Presentations Oral presentations Slides Screencasts Narrative summaries Two-pagers Slidedocs Policy briefs Newsletters Conference posters Press releases Physical items Poetry, drama and dance

Visuals Infographics Data dashboards Mapping Graphic recording Cartoons and comics Digital Animated videos Interactive websites Email marketing Podcasts

Who is this resource useful for?

• Advocates for evaluation;

• Commissioners/managers of evaluation;

• Evaluators;

• Those involved in evaluation capacity strengthening;

How have you used or intend on using this resource?

So many ways. There's the inspiration and ideas from the list of innovative reporting options, as well as the 'what not to do' reminders that I hope I'll have the sense to remember about when I'm next finalising a report, but I'm also really interested in communication and reporting in evaluation, and so I really like Kylie's ideas about layering different content types and tailoring messages to target audiences (which sounds commonsense but so often isn't).​

Why would you recommend it to other people?

I think there's a lot in this book that will help people - even if it's just to help broaden their thinking about what reporting can look like and help them build up the courage to experiment a bit and be creative.