Grant Writing Project Evaluation and Metrics 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A grant-funded literacy program wants to measure long-term impact. Which metric best captures sustained change beyond the grant period?
- Number of workshops held during the grant year
- Reading proficiency scores of participants 12 months post-program (Correct answer)
- Total grant dollars spent on materials
- Number of staff trained during the project
Correct answer: Reading proficiency scores of participants 12 months post-program
Long-term impact metrics, like proficiency scores measured after the program ends, demonstrate sustained change rather than just activity completion.
Question 2: Which evaluation design provides the strongest evidence that a program caused observed outcomes?
- Post-only survey of participants
- Randomized controlled trial (RCT) (Correct answer)
- Case study of one successful participant
- Staff self-assessment checklist
Correct answer: Randomized controlled trial (RCT)
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) randomly assign participants to treatment and control groups, providing the strongest causal evidence.
Question 3: A nonprofit tracks the ratio of clients served to total program budget. This is an example of which type of metric?
- Outcome metric
- Efficiency metric (Correct answer)
- Impact metric
- Process metric
Correct answer: Efficiency metric
Efficiency metrics measure resource use relative to outputs, such as cost per client served.
Question 4: When a funder requests a 'theory of change,' what should the evaluation plan align with?
- The organization's annual audit
- The assumed causal pathway from activities to long-term impact (Correct answer)
- The number of staff positions funded
- The procurement schedule for supplies
Correct answer: The assumed causal pathway from activities to long-term impact
A theory of change maps the logical pathway from inputs and activities to short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes, and evaluations should test this chain.
Question 5: A program serving 200 youth reports a 15% reduction in disciplinary incidents. To make this finding credible, evaluators should also report:
- The number of pizza parties held
- Baseline disciplinary incident rates before the program began (Correct answer)
- Staff satisfaction survey results
- The grant writer's credentials
Correct answer: Baseline disciplinary incident rates before the program began
Without baseline data, a 15% reduction cannot be meaningfully interpreted; comparisons require a starting point.
Question 6: Which term describes evaluation conducted during program implementation to improve ongoing delivery?
- Summative evaluation
- Formative evaluation (Correct answer)
- Impact evaluation
- Meta-evaluation
Correct answer: Formative evaluation
Formative evaluation occurs during implementation and is used to improve or adjust the program while it is still running.
Question 7: A funder asks for 'disaggregated data' in the evaluation report. What does this mean?
- Data collected only from program staff
- Outcome data broken down by subgroups such as age, race, or gender (Correct answer)
- A summary of total outputs across all sites
- Financial data separated from programmatic data
Correct answer: Outcome data broken down by subgroups such as age, race, or gender
Disaggregated data breaks findings into subgroup categories to reveal whether outcomes differ across populations.
Grant Writing Project Evaluation and Metrics 2
A grant-funded literacy program wants to measure long-term impact.
Which metric best captures sustained change beyond the grant period?