I had a discovery call with a prospective client recently, who wants to build an evaluation framework for their staff to implement. The executive director wanted an evaluation framework that was general enough to cover each program but could be tailored to each program’s specifics.
This organization has the budget to hire a consultant, but once the consultant’s job is over, the organization will have to pick up where the consultant left off. That often includes understanding their capacity to implement evaluation activities.
It’s no surprise that many organizations doing amazing work tend to have a small staff. And just like the larger organizations, they focus on the bigger picture and how to measure their impact. (I’ll touch on how grassroots organizations can be more data driven in next week’s blog post.)
They’re getting funding (via their supporters or from foundations) to help build out their infrastructure and capacity to do this data driven work while also being deep within the communities they serve.
“Who will implement this framework and all of its activities?“, I asked the executive director. In order to build an appropriate evaluation framework, I have to understand staff capacity.
It’s not a waste of time or money to hire someone to help. It is a waste of time if the end product isn’t conducive to where your staff’s capacity currently is, which could lead into finding the money to bring in another consultant to help with implementation.
Should you hire a consultant or should you do it yourself?
As a consultant, while my business thrives on being hired to do stuff, the answer isn’t that simple.
There’s no right or wrong answer, but it does come down to what your organization wants to prioritize: Do you have more money, or do you have more capacity?
Again, there are questions within this question, however I find that hiring a consultant comes down to this overarching question.
The answer comes from your organization’s capacity.
Technically, capacity isn’t solely the number of staff you have nor the money allocated in your budget. It also includes staff knowledge, competency, and confidence to implement certain activities, and whether they have time needed to do it.
You can have 50 people on staff, but if they don’t know how to develop survey questions, what systems you have to capture data, or how best to disseminate this information to your stakeholders, how large your staff is won’t matter.
If you have the budget but know your staff doesn’t have a high capacity to do the work, that could be a case for hiring a consultant. Be clear with the consultant on what your staff can and can’t presently do. In the case of the executive director mentioned above, you can also develop an evaluation framework that builds over time as staff and stakeholders become more comfortable with all the aspects of evaluation, while building up their competency and confidence levels, and allotting time for staff to implement evaluation activities.
If your staff has the capacity plus has the competency, confidence, and time for staff to implement evaluation activities, but don’t have the budget, then do it yourself. Be clear with your staff that this is a priority and make time to embed being data driven into your community engagement work. This will also include given staff time to apply evaluative thinking into their work, digest what the data is showing, and prioritize how to take action.
If you have the budget and your staff has high capacity, then you have more options. I’ve had several projects where I worked more closely with staff and they were given opportunities to lead date-driven activities alongside me, or I worked alongside their in-house data person.
Just because you have the budget to hire a consultant doesn’t mean you have to. And just because you have the staff capacity doesn’t mean you’re wasting money working with a consultant.
Understand your bigger picture and where you currently are, and find an approach (a consultant or doing it yourself) to get you there.
Raise Your Voice: How do you decide when to hire a consultant or do it yourself? Share below in the comments section.
