Funding Advice Bureau 


SYFAB guide to... 
Monitoring and 
evaluation for small 
groups 

Many funders ask groups how they will measure the 
success of their work. They want to know what difference 
their funding will make to the people who use your group’s 
services or take part in the activities you provide. 

Thinking through how you will monitor and evaluate your 
group’s activities is an important part of planning your 
work. It can help you learn what works and what doesn’t so 
that you can change or improve future activities or repeat 
things that you know went well. 

Monitoring and evaluating what you do does not have to 
be complicated. It’s an activity that we all do constantly 
without thinking about it. For instance, when you organise 
a bonfire party you will ask yourselves afterwards ‘was 
it a success?’ ‘Did people enjoy themselves?’ ‘Was there 
enough food?’ ‘Was it safe enough for the children?’ ‘Would 
we do it again?’ 

What is monitoring and evaluation? 

Monitoring means collecting and recording information 
about what is happening. Activities can be monitored in 
different ways, you can record figures such as the numbers 
of people attending an event or you can ask people what 
they thought about the activities. 

Evaluation means reviewing how things went by looking 
at the information that was collected and assessing how 
worthwhile it was. You might ask questions like: 

• Did the activity or project achieve what we wanted it to? 
• Who benefited from it? 
• What did people think of it and did it make any difference 
to them? 
• Could we have done it better? 
• What changes will we make next time? 
You need to make sure that you collect useful information 
that will help you to decide if the activity has gone well. You 
also need to collect any particular monitoring information 
that your funder has asked for. 

What to monitor and evaluate 

To decide what to monitor and evaluate, you need to think 
about the following: 

• What does our activity or project aim to do or achieve? 
• What information will help us to see whether this has 
happened? 
• What methods can we use to collect the information? 
• Who needs to be involved in the evaluation? 
• What monitoring has our funder asked for? 
Funders are interested not only in the numbers of 
people involved in activities, but also the quality of their 
experience. So, you might organise an event for a small 
number of people, but everyone there gets a lot of support 
and information and finds it very helpful. In addition to 
recording the number and types of people attending the 
event, it would be just as important to collect information 
that shows how people benefited. This could be done with 
a simple questionnaire at the end of the activity. 

Writing a report 

It’s a good idea to write a short report summarising your 
evaluation. This can be useful when planning future 
activities. It can also be used in your funding applications 
to show funders that you know what you are doing. 

A report could include: 

• The aims of the activity or project 
• The purpose of the evaluation 
• What was being evaluated 
• The timescale for the evaluation 
• What information was collected 
• What methods were used to collect information 
• Who carried out the evaluation 
• An analysis of the results 
• Your conclusions 
• How the group will use the evaluation and make any 
changes when organising future activities. 
Your group should review the report in a management 
committee meeting and discuss the conclusions. 



South Yorkshire Funding 
Advice Bureau 
The Workstation 
15 Paternoster Row 
Sheffi eld S1 2BX 

Tel: 0114 249 4343 
Email: enquiries@syfab.org.uk 
Website: www.syfab.org.uk 

We can provide this information in other formats on 
request. Please get in touch to discuss your needs. 

Our information is produced for local community and voluntary 
groups. No permission is needed for limited reproduction if SYFAB 
is acknowledged. 
Large scale reproduction or inclusion in publications for sale 
must have written permission from SYFAB. 

SYFAB welcomes your comments and criticism. You can 
talk to any member of staff, or contact us by post, phone, 
fax or email. 

Registered Charity No: 1061118 
Reg. Company No: 3030641 

© SYFAB 2003 
All rights reserved. Version 1