Resources
Your go-to hub for evaluation tools, tips, and templates.
Explore practical resources designed by experts to support your evaluation work—whether you're building your skills, streamlining your process, or looking for fresh insights, explore our collection of resources below!
Bundles
Save time and money by grabbing one of our bundles of resources.
The Indigenous Visiting Bundle is a practical, ready‑to‑use resource designed to support evaluation visits from planning through follow‑up. Developed by Eval Academy, this bundle brings together essential tools, templates, and guidance to help evaluation teams conduct visits that are consistent, professional, and aligned with best practices. This bundle includes eight templates and a What’s Included PDF outlining each resource and its use. To help you plan to use keeoukaywin in your projects that engage Indigenous communities.
Planning guide
Information and consent form template
Tracking log template
Email invite template
Phone introduction script template
Visiting guide template
Honoraria tracking template
Compensation receipt template
Discover the Complete Program Managers Bundle from Eval Academy.
Packed with essential resources for program managers, this bundle gives you our top resources to strengthen your evaluation practice and confidently manage the RFP process. Download now and take your program management to the next level!
Get all three templates you need to conduct evaluation interviews:
Standard Interview Information Letter Template
Standard Interview Consent Form Template
Standard Interview Guide Template
You’ll use these templates over and over. These templates total $25 CAD separately, now offered as a bundle for only $15 CAD.
Discover the Complete Consultant Bundle from Eval Academy, your all-in-one resource for Evaluation Consultants. Contains over 80 resources! From qualitative to quantitative methods, strategic planning to project management, and professional development, this bundle equips you with the tools to excel in evaluation. Sold separately for over $150, but with the bundle, you save over $30.
This bundle includes:
Proposal tracking dashboard
Program evaluation scoping guide
Evaluation plan template
Logic model templates
Theory of change template
Log frame template
Performance measures definitions template
Interview and focus group guide templates
Interview and focus group information and consent templates
Sample size calculator
MANY MORE templates, infographics, and tip sheets.
Download now and elevate your consultancy to new heights!
Discover the Complete Planning Bundle from Eval Academy, your all-in-one resource for planning your evaluation. Contains over 40 resources! This bundle equips you with the tools to excel in planning your evaluation, including templates and tools for designing your theory of change or logic model, kicking off your planning meetings, and developing evaluation questions. With the bundle, you save over $15. Download now and elevate your planning to new heights!
Discover the Complete Qualitative Data Collection Bundle from Eval Academy. Contains over 15 resources! This bundle equips you with the tools to excel in qualitative data collection, including templates and tools for interviews, focus groups, and data analysis. With the bundle, you save over $15. Download now and elevate your qualitative data collection to new heights!
Discover the Complete Quantitative Data Collection Bundle from Eval Academy. This bundle equips you with the tools to excel in quantitative data collection, including templates and tools for designing surveys and analyzing data. With the bundle, you save over $5. Download now and elevate your quantitative data collection to new heights!
Discover the Complete Reporting Bundle from Eval Academy, your all-in-one resource for reporting on your evaluation. This bundle equips you with the tools to excel in reporting, including templates and tools for styling and structuring your next report. Download now, save money, and elevate your reporting to new heights!
The Trauma-Informed Evaluation Practice Checklist is a practical, easy-to-use resource designed to help evaluators embed trauma-informed principles into every stage of the evaluation process — from planning and data collection to analysis, reporting, and team care. Whether you’re working in health, social services, education, or community settings, this checklist helps you create safer, more respectful, and more ethical evaluation practices for participants, partners, and evaluation teams alike.
The Pre‑Interview Risk Assessment Checklist is a practical, ready‑to‑use tool designed to help evaluators identify and address potential risks before conducting any interview. Interviews can vary widely in sensitivity, participant needs, and contextual complexity, all of which influence participant safety, interviewer well‑being, and the quality of data collected. This checklist guides evaluators through a structured review of key risk domains, including topic sensitivity, participant characteristics, interviewer safety, ethical considerations, and confidentiality.
Designed for evaluators, researchers, program staff, and anyone conducting qualitative interviews, this resource helps ensure interviews are safe, thoughtful, and aligned with best practices in ethical data collection. Whether working with sensitive populations or exploring complex topics, the checklist provides a reliable process for making informed decisions about when to proceed, modify, or postpone an interview.
This downloadable pdf checklist is designed to support evaluators conducting in-person interviews or focus groups. It outlines key tasks to complete the week of your session and details what to bring on the day of. Ideal for evaluation professionals, this resource ensures thorough preparation and smooth execution of qualitative data collection.
Use this checklist when starting a new evaluation project to make sure you are gathering the information necessary to support your evaluation endeavour. This checklist can act as a support tool for you to make sure you have the context you need when starting an evaluation.
Whether you’ve read The Program Evaluation Standards cover to cover or not, you may be wondering how to ensure you’re applying them to your evaluation practice. This free digital download will give you the reflective prompts you need to ensure your next evaluation project incorporates all 30 Standards.
Check out our post for more details on why we put this together.
This resource has been created and shared with permission from JCSEE. Please feel free to use it to support your practice and for educational purposes.
This guide is intended for anyone conducting an evaluation of a program to understand the scope of the evaluation. The guide outlines questions evaluators can ask program managers or other stakeholders to better understand the scope of the program and its evaluation. Scoping an evaluation is often exploratory, therefore the questions outlined in this guide do not have to be answered in a linear process.
In most cases, scoping is followed by a planning phase or a quote for an evaluation. The questions in the guide are intended to help evaluators begin formulating a quote and/or an evaluation plan; however, it can also be used identify disagreements or gaps in what is known about the program and/or the boundaries of the evaluation.
Explore 10 evaluative thinking questions designed to enhance your understanding of findings. Use this infographic with example questions to help with evaluative thinking and make informed decisions based on your results.
Creating accessible evaluation reports is essential for ensuring your findings can be understood and used by diverse audiences. Accessible reporting goes beyond compliance—it improves clarity, usability, and engagement. By applying simple design and writing strategies, you can make your reports more inclusive and effective.
This infographic includes steps to enhance your content and design to broaden your audience reach. It includes tips on colour palette, contrast, images and tables, fonts, headings, structure, and language used.
Uncover key do’s and don’ts for evaluators using social media. This infographic helps share findings ethically, engage audiences, and increase impact while protecting confidentiality.
Master the document review with our new infographic that helps you to define scope, develop a framework, analyze findings, and report actionable insights.
Understanding informed consent is essential to ethical data collection. This free infographic breaks down what informed consent really means, what participants need to know, and how to obtain it. Perfect for evaluators, researchers, and program staff, it simplifies key concepts and supports accessible, plain-language consent practices.
Discover the best data visualization tool for your audience with this free infographic! Learn when to use infographics, data placemats, or dashboards, plus best practices, essential resources, and distribution tips—while avoiding common pitfalls.
Enhance your writing with this free guide on the Top 10 Grammar Mistakes to Avoid! Discover common errors that can weaken your message and learn how to make your writing clear, concise, and professional.
Explore the versatile skills evaluators bring beyond evaluation with this free infographic! Learn how evaluators can add value to programs and projects in unexpected ways—helping you find the right fit for your team.
This downloadable infographic from Eval Academy’s 2024 AEA Conference poster session highlights our mission to democratize evaluation knowledge. This free PDF provides key insights into Eval Academy’s mission, resources, and practical tools for evaluators at every level.
This infographic gives you all the information you need to become a good data steward. Here, we explain what data stewardship is, why it’s important, and what good data stewardship looks like.
This infographic defines qualitative data saturation, lists why it is important and identifies how you know when you’ve reached saturation. It also includes links to further resources for those who are looking to dive a little deeper into the theoretical concept of qualitative data saturation.
Truth and Reconciliation Day / Orange Shirt Day is on September 30. This may inspire questions around ways evaluators can support Indigenous evaluation. This infographic provides some aspects to consider when planning an evaluation with Indigenous peoples.
This infographic introduces the 1-3-25 reporting method, a structured approach developed by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation for creating final evaluation reports. By downloading this infographic, you'll learn how to craft concise 1-page outlines, engaging 3-page executive summaries, and comprehensive 25-page reports.
This infographic on Classifying Outcomes is a valuable resource for program planners and evaluators alike. By downloading it, you'll gain insights into categorizing outcomes into short, medium, and long-term, based on their timeframe and connection to program activities.
This infographic provides a clear distinction between Learning Questions and Evaluation Questions, outlining when and how to use each. By downloading this infographic, you'll gain valuable insights into prioritizing questions and optimizing learning and evaluation processes to support your work effectively.
Discover the transformative potential of Developmental Evaluation (DE) with our infographic. If you're seeking a flexible approach that adapts to evolving goals and fosters collaboration, download our infographic to unlock the keys to success in program development.
This infographic outlines 8 types of survey questions you should avoid and explains why you should avoid them.
Data are only useful when used! This infographic provides you with a list of reflective questions that can help to uncover new insights buried in your data. Here we list our top questions to get you thinking about your data in new ways.
The first step in ethical evaluation is awareness, that is, recognizing that all evaluations hold inherent risks. This infographic provides you with a list of questions at the planning, data collection, recruitment, and reporting stages, to point you in the direction of where to look for risk and support ethical evaluation.
Many of us have come across reports that feel cramped, unengaging, and let’s face it, a little bit boring! Dedicating some time to designing your report before writing can significantly affect its overall quality. Here are my 10 tips for designing quality reports!
Here are a few top tips to help you make your next focus group effective and efficient!
Choosing the right type of chart to display your data can help to improve clarity among your readers and lessens the likelihood that your findings may be misinterpreted. With so many different types of charts and graphs, it can be tough to know where to start. This infographic is for anyone who wants to clearly display their quantitative data in a meaningful way but isn’t sure how to pick the best chart for the job.
This infographic is for those who want to understand the differences between research and evaluation, especially when they are used simultaneously in programs. The infographic shows the main steps of research and evaluation, points out the main ways they are different, and gives helpful advice for managing programs that use both approaches.
This infographic is for people who are new to the field of evaluation and want to learn more about it. The purpose of the infographic is to provide newcomers with valuable resources that answer three important questions about evaluation. The infographic includes a one-page PDF with clickable links to relevant resources, making it easy for beginners to explore and learn more about evaluation.
This infographic explains the difference between structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interviews, including when to use each method.
This infographic provides a clear breakdown of the distinctions between monitoring and evaluation. It defines each term, outlines its primary purposes, and details the key aspects of data collection for both processes. By offering a concise visual comparison, this infographic can support your understanding of when to employ monitoring versus evaluation and how each contributes to effective project management.
Unlock the key to effective outcome assessment survey development with our downloadable infographic.
Download this infographic to master the art of presenting themes effectively! Whether it's a report, summary, infographic, or presentation, the way you present your themes from thematic analysis can make or break your findings' impact. Elevate your thematic analysis presentations with these expert tips!
Download "10 Reasons to Evaluate!" to discover compelling reasons for evaluating your projects beyond just meeting funder requirements. This infographic will provide insights into informed decision-making, resource allocation, continuous learning, and how to demonstrate your program's impact effectively.
Create your own logic model using our pre-made PowerPoint template. This is a free, pared down version of some of the other templates that we offer. If you like this one, check out our other logic model templates.
After purchase, you will receive a PowerPoint file (.pptx) with your template that you can customize to suit your needs.
Creating a clear, well-formatted paper survey can be time-consuming. This survey template in Word provides ready-to-use layouts for common question types, along with practical tips to help you customize, format, and finalize your survey quickly. It’s a simple way to save time, stay organized, and produce a clean, participant-friendly paper survey.
Create your own logic model using our pre-made PowerPoint template.
After purchase, you will receive a PowerPoint file (.pptx) with your template that you can customize to suit your needs.
Simplify your data collection with our easy-to-use Data Request Form Template. Ideal for evaluators to clearly outline, communicate, and organize their data needs.
Create your own logic model using our pre-made Canva template.
After purchase, you will receive a link to access the template in Canva where you can personalize it to meet your needs.
Discover the Creative Theory of Change Tree Design Template
Elevate your evaluation presentations with our innovative Canva template! Designed for evaluators and professionals seeking a visually compelling way to communicate their Theory of Change, this template transforms complex concepts into an engaging, tree-shaped visual narrative. Perfect for websites, presentations, and client-facing materials, the template offers a design that can be used with a standard Canva account.
The creative tree-shaped layout provides an ideal format for public-facing and storytelling purposes, with an easily adjustable size to fit your unique project needs. Bring your Theory of Change to life with a design that's as dynamic as your project – no professional Canva subscription required!
This template offers our top 10 tips for facilitating evaluation planning meetings, guiding you through every step from preparation to actionable follow-up. Whether you're new to evaluation or an experienced professional, it provides practical advice to streamline your meetings, engage partners effectively, and build confidence in creating clear, actionable evaluation plans.
To assist you with the process of getting your Credentialed Evaluator designation, we’ve created a competency template, which aligns with the new competencies released in 2019.
The template walks you through the domains and competencies, pointing you to relevant resources where applicable. It also gives you a warning when you are nearing or over your 1,000-character limit.
Create your own logic model using our two popular pre-made Canva templates.
After purchase, you will receive a link to access the templates in Canva.
An Interview Tracking Log is a tool to use when collecting qualitative data through interviews to keep track of participant recruitment. This Tracking Log can be used by anyone completing interviews and should be modified to capture project-specific information such as relevant participant demographics. The Tracking Log is a living document and should be continuously updated throughout the interviewing process to ensure it is most effective.
An Interview Tracking Log is a tool to use when collecting qualitative data through interviews to keep track of participant recruitment. This Tracking Log can be used by anyone completing interviews and should be modified to capture project-specific information such as relevant participant demographics. The Tracking Log is a living document and should be continuously updated throughout the interviewing process to ensure it is most effective.
Enhance your program planning and stakeholder understanding with our Logic Model Template. This Word tool simplifies complex program structures by outlining resources, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. Utilize facilitating questions to guide your model's development and create a roadmap for program success.
Revolutionize your program planning and evaluation with our Log Frame Template. This tool facilitates stakeholder collaboration, problem identification, goal setting, and outcome mapping. Download this Word template now to streamline your planning process and ensure clarity, alignment, and effectiveness in achieving your program's objectives.
Download this template to calculate the optimum sample size for your data collection. Use this template to help you determine how to calculate sample size in Excel.
This Outcome Harvesting Substantiation Form streamlines the documentation of a program’s impact by capturing outcome statements and assessing observed changes. It enables you to evaluate significance, determine program contribution, and classify outcome types, facilitating informed decision-making and demonstrating program effectiveness.
This template provides a comprehensive agenda for an Evaluation Kick-off Meeting, designed to facilitate effective planning and communication for program evaluations.
A dashboard template for evaluation consultants to track proposal submissions, win rates and contract details. This Excel file is a powerhouse for tracking and reflecting on your proposals.
Craft a clear roadmap for your program's Theory of Change by outlining the problem, intended impact, and pathways to change. This Word template helps you articulate outcomes, align activities, and identify assumptions and evidence crucial for program evaluation.
A status template to keep stakeholders informed on how the evaluation is progressing (Project Management tool).
Plan-do-study-act (PDSA) is an iterative problem-solving model for implementing change. This Word template is a blank worksheet to help you use Plan-Do-Study-Act in your evaluation.
Template for filling in the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an initiative.
Scoping your evaluation should start with a solid understanding of who wants to know what (and for what purpose). This interest holder matrix is a fillable template that will help you outline a) who should be involved in your evaluation, b) why they should be involved, and c) how they should be involved. At Eval Academy, we intentionally use the term “interest holder” as “stakeholder” carries colonial connotations historically tied to land claims and practices that excluded or harmed Indigenous Peoples.
If you’ve read our article on the components of an evaluation plan, you know it can be a comprehensive document. This template includes all the sections we’ve listed in that post, with prompts to help jump start your thought process.
Background
Logic Model / Theory of Change
Assumptions
External Factors
Evaluation History
Evaluation Purpose and Use
Evaluation Scope
Data Collection Plan
Data Sources
Data Collection Methods
Data Collection Timeline
Project Ethics
Stakeholder Matrix
Reporting Products
Communication Timeline
This file will download in fully editable Word format.
Precision around what you’re measuring is vital. Without defining each measure in detail, you run the risk of collecting the wrong data, analyzing it incorrectly, or having inconsistency across the team.
This Performance Measures Definitions Template ensures you work through every important detail for your measures. It will support you to define numerators, denominators, inclusion and exclusion criteria, among other elements, and includes points to consider for each element.
This Word template is fully editable and customizable for your project.
Evaluators often use interviews to collect data. Strong interview data relies on a consistent interview process—that’s where this interview guide comes in. You’ll find yourself using this template over and over to structure your questions and provide prompts for interviewers to get deeper into interviewees’ perspectives.
This template includes sections for:
· consent confirmation
· interview questions and probes
· contacts to have on hand
· post-interview reflection
This template downloads as a fully editable Word document.
A professional information letter will help ensure your respondents are well-informed about the evaluation interview process. Use this template to craft information letters that meet ethical standards and assure participants you know what you’re doing.
This template includes sections for:
let respondents know what they’re being asked to do
why the evaluation is being conducted
benefits and risks
confidentiality
information use
contact information
This fully editable template will download as a Word document.
No need to start your interview consent form from scratch every time. This template has all the standard questions required to ensure you’re following an ethical written consent process. Add your own, and customize to fit the unique evaluation projects you lead.
This fully editable template will download as a Word document.
Get all three templates you need to conduct evaluation interviews:
Standard Interview Information Letter Template
Standard Interview Consent Form Template
Standard Interview Guide Template
You’ll use these templates over and over. These templates total $25 CAD separately, now offered as a bundle for only $15 CAD.
A professional information letter will help ensure your respondents are well-informed about the focus group process. Use this template to craft information letters and consent forms that meet ethical standards and assure participants you know what you’re doing.
This template includes sections for:
informing participants about what they’re being asked to do
why the evaluation is being conducted
benefits and risks
confidentiality
information use
contact information
granting consent
This fully editable template will download as a Word document.
This tip sheet brings together practical Microsoft Excel keyboard shortcuts for both Windows and Mac users to help speed up navigation, formatting, formulas, PivotTables, filtering, and more. Whether you’re cleaning data, analyzing survey results, or building reports, it’s a handy resource to keep beside you while you work.
Pivot tables aren’t always the right tool—but when they are, they can make analysis much faster and clearer. This tipsheet shows you exactly when to use them (and when not to) so you can explore messy data, identify patterns, and turn large datasets into useful insights more efficiently.
Learn to draft winning proposals with tips on understanding RFPs, building strong work plans, showcasing experience, and aligning budgets to client needs.
This tip sheet shows you why you should be using case studies in your evaluations and how you can select and craft a meaningful narrative to illustrate your evaluation’s findings.
Improve your project management skills with our new tip sheet on project management in evaluation. You will find tips on adaptability, communication, and data use. Navigate challenges and achieve goals with our new tip sheet.
Choosing the right survey questions is key to collecting meaningful data. This tip sheet offers a visual overview of common question types—like multiple choice, Likert scales, and open-ended responses—plus practical tips to improve clarity, reduce burden, and align with your evaluation plan. Whether you're building your first survey or refining an existing one, this resource makes better survey design easier.
If you will be conducting interviews in your evaluation, then this tip sheet is for you! Whether you’re new to the process or have conducted interviews before, this tip sheet provides a good overview and refresher to make your next interview experience a great one.
This tip sheet highlights our 5 top tips to ensure:
Your interviews collect rich data.
Your interviewees have a good experience.
It also includes links to other Eval Academy resources to guarantee informed consent within your interviews.
This tip sheet lists the key elements you need to include in your outcome statement.
This tip sheet provides basic tips for how to enter and organize your program data.
This free tip sheet provides basic tips for creating an interest holder matrix to better understand who your interest holders are and how they should be involved. At Eval Academy, we intentionally use the term “interest holders” as “stakeholder” carries colonial connotations historically tied to land claims and practices that excluded or harmed Indigenous Peoples.
Our Design Bundle from Eval Academy brings together our most popular, creatively designed evaluation templates in one place. It includes a suite of visually engaging logic models and theory of change templates, along with practical tools to support effective data visualization. Sold separately for $48, but with the bundle, you save over $10.
Inside the bundle, you’ll find:
Choosing the Right Data Visualization Tool infographic
Data Visualization Decision Tree
Multiple Canva and PowerPoint logic model templates in unique, ready-to-use designs
Theory of Change Tree template for mapping complex pathways clearly
Designed for evaluators, facilitators, and teams, this bundle makes it easy to communicate ideas, plan programs, and present data in a clear and compelling way.