Short Abstract

Co-op Foundation, with NCVO, built an organisational evaluation culture using participatory approaches and following NPC’s Inspiring Impact principles. Through co-creation, mixed-methods, and a feedback loop, evaluation across funding programmes enabled strategy review and improved practice.

Description

Background

Building an evaluation culture is crucial for organisations that want to make evidence-based decisions and foster continuous learning. Such a culture relies on leadership commitment, stakeholder engagement, and integrating evaluation into daily processes. However, embedding evaluation requires more than just technical tools; it calls for participatory and adaptive approaches that amplify diverse voices and encourage the use of evidence. This panel session explores the Co-op Foundation’s journey—partnering with NCVO—as a case study in developing an evaluation culture. The Foundation’s experience demonstrates how collaboration, participatory practices, and the NPC’s ‘Inspiring Impact’ principles can turn evaluation into meaningful action. Team members from the Co-op Foundation and their evaluation consultant will share how they fostered a culture of evaluation, tracked strategic progress, and used evidence to inform their work.

Methodology

In 2022, after launching its “Building Communities of the Future Together” strategy, the Co-op Foundation began collaborating with NCVO to develop an organisational Theory of Change (ToC). Reflecting participatory grantmaking values, the ToC was co-created with input from the Foundation team, Board of Trustees, Co-op stakeholders, funded partners, and young people. The shared aim was that by 2027, young people and organisations would have more power to create fairer, more co-operative communities. To track progress, the Foundation identified ten priority outcomes (five for young people, five for organisations) through internal consultation. A mixed-methods evaluation framework was developed, including tailored surveys and focus group guides, all cognitively tested with end users and based on established methods in the youth and funder sectors. Data was gathered from November 2024 to January 2025, capturing feedback from funded organisations, young people, and individual grant recipients across all Foundation programmes.

Turning Evaluation Findings into Action

Evaluation findings were shared through an iterative feedback process: first in a Foundation team workshop, then with the Board of Trustees, and finally with young people involved in participatory grantmaking. This multi-step approach ensured the results reflected a broad range of perspectives and addressed potential power imbalances. The evaluation framework helped pinpoint ways to improve funding programmes and the capacity-building support offered through partners. Critically, insights from the evaluation informed strategic review sessions, helping the Foundation connect individual workstreams to broader organisational goals—a common challenge in large funding organisations.

Implications for Building an Evaluation Culture

Several factors contributed to embedding evaluation in the Foundation: a cross-organisational project team, a deep collaboration with NCVO, and ongoing stakeholder communication. The process exemplifies how evaluation culture is cultivated not through top-down mandates but through sustained participatory engagement that addresses challenges such as fear of failure, entrenched working patterns, and lack of evaluation confidence. Drawing on NPC’s Inspiring Impact principles—including responsibility, purpose, inclusion, proportionate methods, honesty, acting on findings, and sharing learning—the Co-op Foundation’s approach demonstrates that co-producing evidence with communities and service users, combined with a commitment to learning from successes and setbacks, creates a sustainable evaluation culture. When evaluation is embedded from the outset as a participatory, learning-driven process, it becomes a driver for organisational improvement and community impact.