Services

Funders

As well as helping voluntary organisations measure the value of what they are doing, ESS also helps funders improve their own systems so that they can more easily gather good evidence about the difference their funds are making.

We can support you or your funded organisations by phone, email, workshops and face to face support all the way along the journey. See our leaflet Evaluation Support for Funders for more information about our services.

See the Evaluation Pathway for more details about the evaluation path.

Harmonising Reporting Working Group

The Scotland Funders Forum set up a working group to look at harmonising reporting in 2009. The group found that harmonising reporting is about creating a good relationship between funders and the organisations they fund; communicating clearly; and thinking carefully about what questions to ask (funders) and what information to provide (funded organisations). The report sets out practical tips, templates and guidance to help make this happen.

Evaluation Declaration

We’ve worked with members of the Scotland Funders' Forum to produce the Evaluation Declaration. This has 5 statements that describe why monitoring, evaluation and reporting are important and what they should achieve. Funders are saying they believe evaluation is valuable, relevant, proportionate, supported and involves looking from the inside and outside at our work.

Evaluation Declaration Health Check Tool

The 'Evaluation Declaration' health check tool helps funders think about the way they undertake monitoring and evaluation and their relationships with funded organisations. Eleven funders have already used the tool and received a personalised report setting out what they do well and making suggestions for improvements. The Evaluation Declaration health check tool and the guidance for this tool are free for you to download. The tool and guidance have been recently updated (winter 2010) to reflect the learning from the Haronising Reporting Working Group. Please contact us if you are a funder and would like support to use this tool.

Funders We Have Worked With

We have worked with a number of charitable trusts and other funders in Scotland, including Voluntary Action Fund, Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Community Foundation, Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland, Climate Challenge Fund and the Wood Family Trust.