Date: Friday, December 19, 2025
Hi there! I’m Shannon Wichlacz, a Senior Evaluation Associate at CCNY, Inc. with over 20 years of experience. Recently, I worked with a large philanthropic foundation on a project that at first seemed straightforward: measure how much staff and board members learned from training sessions. But as we dug into why they were pursuing Organizational Learning, it became clear that for complex initiatives, you need more than simple metrics: you need a guiding theory. That’s where Theory-Driven Evaluation came in, and it completely shaped our evaluation approach.
Initially, the foundation’s goal was simple: use a pre/post survey to track attendance and see what staff learned. But through our discussions, we discovered their real goal was much deeper: to transform the organization into a fully inclusive, anti-racist, multicultural learning environment. This insight shifted our focus from counting activities to understanding how learning translated into meaningful organizational change.
The result? We created an Evaluation Implementation Manual; a practical guide to help the organization embed our evaluation tools into their daily activities. This manual now supports their continuous learning, anti-racist practices, and alignment with community priorities.
We worked with staff to build a Logic Model that mapped out their goals, objectives, inputs, activities, and expected outcomes. Seeing their ideas come to life on paper was energizing! Suddenly, learning sessions, policy changes, and community engagement all connected into one clear story of transformation. The Logic Model served as a touchstone during the project, when staff got caught-up in the details or went off track. We could return to the “true North” of the model to refocus discussion on the bigger picture and keep everyone aligned with the intended outcomes.
The Logic Model didn’t just map the plan; it guided every evaluation tool we created, from attendance trackers to surveys. It became both a roadmap and a way to measure progress, helping staff spot gaps and adjust their strategies.
A theory-driven approach transforms data into insight and ensures every tool serves a purpose.
A theory-driven approach helps you understand why something is or isn’t working.
Grounding your evaluation within a logic model transforms data into insight and can guide meaningful organizational improvement.
For guidance on program theory and complex evaluations, see Patricia J. Rogers’ article, “Using Programme Theory to Evaluate Complicated and Complex Aspects of Interventions”.
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