Date: Monday, February 16, 2026
Welcome to Needs Assessment Week on AEA365. I’m Susana Morales the new co-chair of the Needs Assessment Topical Interest Group (TIG), along with being the Senior Learning and Evaluation Officer at the St. David’s Foundation. Today I’m sharing some news and resources from our TIG, along with our plans to conduct a needs assessment for our TIG membership.
Needs assessment is grounded in listening understanding priorities, surfacing gaps, and centering the voices of those most impacted. As practitioners, we apply these principles across communities, organizations, and systems. Now, the Needs Assessment (TIG) is turning that same lens inward.
The Needs Assessment TIG is launching a membership needs assessment in Q2 of 2026 to better understand who our members are, how they engage with the TIG, and what supports would be most meaningful moving forward.
As the field continues to evolve with increased emphasis on equity-centered practice, participatory approaches, and systems-level thinking the TIG leadership team wants to ensure our programming and engagement reflect the real needs and interests of our members.
This assessment will help us:
The findings will inform future programming, learning opportunities, communication strategies, and strategic priorities. Most importantly, this effort reflects our commitment to modeling strong needs assessment practice using member voice to guide decision-making.
Whether you are new to needs assessment or a long-time practitioner, your perspective matters. Your input will help shape how the TIG supports learning, connection, and professional growth.
Needs assessment is not only about identifying gaps, it is about aligning action with what matters most.
We look forward to learning from our members and co-creating what comes next together.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Needs Assessment (NA) TIG Week with our colleagues in the NA AEA Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our NA TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on theaea365 webpageso that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by theAmerican Evaluation Associationand provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.