Applying Innovative Reporting to Evaluation Plans by Kylie Hutchinson

Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.

Hello! We’re Kylie Hutchinson of Community Solutions Planning & Evaluation and Elayne McIvor of Catalyst Consulting, long-time collaborators on evaluation projects of all shapes and sizes.

Kylie literally wrote the book on more innovative and effective evaluation reporting, but it occurred to us one day that there’s an opportunity to further extend this thinking to our evaluation plans as well. We often make our logic models more visually appealing for clients so they can use them publicly, but why stop there?

Have you ever proudly prepared an evaluation plan (framework, matrix, whatever you choose to call it), that is wonderfully comprehensive but makes your client’s head spin? This unfortunately dawned on us with one recent client. We usually present our evaluation plans as a detailed table with column headings outlining the specifics of which outcomes and outputs will be evaluated, how, by whom, and when. Despite our nice and “straightforward” table (usually six or more pages, legal-sized, lots of columns and rows, oops) we’re learning that clients can find this overwhelming and difficult to absorb.

While we understand that each evaluator has their own way to present this information, here are some tips that we’re currently employing.

Hot Tips:

• We now make the detailed table mentioned above an appendix. At the beginning of the evaluation plan, we present a short “data collection at a glance” table that summarizes the main data collection methods by data source, e.g., participants, managers, program records, etc., so the reader can quickly orient themselves.
• Consider adding similar tables to the one above that conversely summarizes the data sources by data collection method, time frame, and/or person responsible, for easy cross-referencing.
• Use colour-coding liberally to distinguish different outcomes, data collection methods, responsibility, or time periods for data collection wherever it might facilitate understanding for the reader.
• Consider using icons for standard data collection methods like the examples below to add visual variety to the document.
• If it’s for a lay audience, think radically about the key messages they should take away from the evaluation plan, and whether there’s a more creative way to present these. An infographic? A comic? The sky’s the limit.

This is an approach we’re actively experimenting with, so please share any additional ideas and examples you have in the comments below!

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