Assessing Evaluative Capacity

Evaluative capacity is the combination of evaluation skills and evaluative thinking. It requires a commitment to doing and using evaluation in programs, strategies and initiatives. To support this work, organizations need to be able to determine capacity that exists and capacity that must be developed. To that end we offer a tool and two reports with additional resources to assist organizations in their efforts to identify existing capacity.

• Evaluative Thinking Assessment Tool: An automated tool updated in 2010 developed to assess the extent to which evaluative thinking is present in various organizational capacities such as strategic planning, governance, human resources, marketing and communications.


• Evaluative Thinking Assessment Sample Report: provides an example of Evaluative Thinking assessment tool results.  The organization and all associated data are fabricated to exemplify use of the Bruner Foundation Evaluative Thinking Assessment tool.


• YMCA Evaluation Capacity Assessment Final Report 2012: Assessing the Evaluative Capacity of Large Non-Profit Organizations, a detailed account of the methods, findings, and lessons learned from the Bruner Foundation sponsored Evaluation Capacity Assessment completed with YMCA USA http://www.ymca.net/.