Integrating Communications into Evaluation in the Social Sector

Evaluation and communication are often in separate teams at nonprofits and other social good organizations. This can lead to missed opportunities, duplicated efforts, and gaps in work and knowledge. This proposal draws on a new initiative at the Clean Energy Resource Teams and the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships at the University of Minnesota Extension, to help communications and evaluation teams work together and be mutually supportive. This Think Tank will share some preliminary findings and provide a space for participants to share their own insights, particularly from nonprofits and social good organizations.  

Break-out groups will explore different facets of this collaboration, such as: 

1.     What steps of the evaluation process are ripe for integrating communications? What kinds of impacts could this have?

2.     How can evaluation inform strategic and effective communication? 

3.     What evaluation opportunities exist for utilizing qualitative data for public engagement and messaging?

4.     What are best practices and strategies for collaborating between different teams within an organization?

Communication is essential for developing, implementing, and sharing the results of evaluations. Moreover, communications work itself, such as interviews with communities served, social media engagement and audience reach, can be a rich source of data for evaluators. As evaluators in social change organizations seek to amplify the voices of the communities they serve, utilizing existing data and minimizing the burden on these communities should be prioritized. However, conversations with communications professionals suggest that communications often comes as an afterthought, instead of being integrated into a program from the beginning. This Think Tank will provide a space for new evaluators as well as experienced professionals to reflect and learn about best practices for collaboration between communications and evaluation. This space will bring together existing literature (1) on communications and evaluation, initial findings from the Clean Energy Resource Teams/Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, and insights from participants. Learning outcomes from the session include understanding the benefits and opportunities of this integration, anticipating potential challenges and pitfalls, and establishing best practices for streamlining work between these areas.