Stories & Examples

On-the-ground examples of evaluation in action!
These case studies, evaluation reports, and profiles offer insights that may help you:

  • define civic/social outcomes and indicators
  • hone the purpose of or focus your evaluation
  • make choices regarding approach and methods
  • find creative ways to report findings.

Check out:
In-Depth Case Studies from Animating Democracy's Arts and Civic Engagement Impact Initiative

Add your own:
Evaluation case studies, reports or stories. Share your work by contacting animatingdemocracy@artsusa.org.

Case Studies, Reports & Stories

Titlesort icon Author Description Tags
Art and Soul Project Community Survey, Starksboro, VT, Orton Family Foundation Chris Dwyer This item relates to the Preliminary Menu of Possible Outcomes/Indicators/Measures from the Starksboro Art and Soul Project, as both are part of the Art and Soul Project. This item is a ten page community survey with thirty questions. The survey is an adaptation of a standard survey developed by the Orton Family Foundation to use in tracking changes in perceptions about land use planning in all their Heart and Soul community projects. The Preliminary Menu is a table relating outcomes, indicators... active citizenship, community building, core values, data collection, environmental, environmental issues, human capital, quantatative measures, social capital, surveys, evaluation tool, interactive questions, sample evaluation tools
Arts and Culture Indicators Project
Maria Rosario Jackson
Florence Kabwasa-Green
 		The site offers an overview of Urban Institute's Arts and Culture Indicators Project, defines cultural vitality, briefly addresses cultural vitality indicators, offers case study examples, and gives abstracts and links to high-quality relevant research studies. The site is a beautiful resource for arts and civic engagement practitioners and policymakers. Graphically strong with top notch research, it is a model for the field. Civic leaders and heads of large organizations could review this site ... arts-related, cultural vitality, indicators, quantatative measures, evaluators, foundations, policymakers, practitioners, researchers, website
Connecting Californians: Finding the Art of Community Change, an inquiry into the role of story in strengthening communities
Dudley Cocke
Linda Frye Burnham
Erica Kohl
Craig McGarvey
 		"Connecting Californians" reports on a research project completed in 2000, that explored story as a powerful means of building community. The project conducted a search in each of California's 58 counties to find projects that engaged residents in a public performance or story about local history and life. Maps were created to represent the various projects. It is a helpful model for collaborative planning and discussion regarding the arts, culture, and civil society. Althoug... analysis approach, arts-related, capacity building, community building, community indicators, context, core values, enthographic evaluation, experimental methods, participation, social impact, report
Animating Democracy Resource Documenting Civic Engagement: A Plan for the Tucson Pima Arts Council
Mark J. Stern
Susan Seifert
 		As part of Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, the Tucson Pima Arts Council wanted to know what quantitative measures are reasonable to use to understand the civic engagement effects of its agency work. Stern and Seifert propose five strategies: improving organizational data gathering, telling stories, documenting artists and the informal cultural sector, identifying institutional networks, and using geographic information systems to integrate data for... analysis approach, arts-related, assessment, case-making, civic engagement, community mapping, context, cultural mapping, cultural vitality, data collection, documentation, evaluation, evidence-based evaluation, methodological strategies, outcomes, realistic evaluation, social capital, social impact, assessment tool, evaluation tool, framework, report
Animating Democracy Resource Evaluation Plan: Starksboro (VT) Art & Soul Project, The Orton Family Foundation Chris Dwyer Art & Soul is a project of the Orton Family Foundation. The Art & Soul Civic Engagement Project, being piloted in Starksboro, VT tests whether the use of arts-based methods of community engagement will catalyze articulation of the unique assets of a community, in turn impacting community decision-making. As part of Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, Art & Soul partners collaborated with evaluator Chris Dwyer of RMC Research to systematically define... assessment, civic engagement, community building, community indicators, data collection, evaluation, impacts, indicators, outcomes, social capital, surveys, assessment tool, evaluation tool, framework, guide
Animating Democracy Resource Evaluation Plan: Arts & Equity Initiative, Terra Moto and the City of Portland, ME
Chris Dwyer
Marty Pottenger
 		The Arts & Equity Initiative (AEI) is a national initiative to improve municipal government through strategic art projects between artists, city departments, unions, elected officials and the community. As part of Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, artist and AEI director, Marty Pottenger collaborated with evaluator Chris Dwyer of RMC Research. They systematically defined outcomes and indicators, as well as strategies for data collection and communication... action evaluation, arts-related, case-making, civic engagement, data collection, diversity, documentation, evaluation, human capital, impacts, indicators, outcomes, project design, social impact, surveys, evaluation tool, framework, guide, indicators
J. W. McConnell Family Foundation: What We Do [NOTE: cited resources not available on the Foundation website as of 12/21/09] The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation funds projects in Canada that foster citizen engagement, build resilient communities and have the potential for national scale or impact. The Foundation focuses on four areas by which to make a difference in the world: (1) promoting active citizenship in order to encourage benefits to both individual and collective well-being that flow from a sense of belonging and contributin... arts-related, community building, development cooperation, grantmakers
Animating Democracy Resource Making the Case for Skid Row Culture: Findings from a Collaborative Inquiry by the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) and the Urban Institute
Maria Rosario Jackson
John Malpede
 		Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) has distinguished itself by its longstanding commitment to making change in L.A.’s Skid Row community through theater-based civic engagement work. As part of Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, LAPD and Urban Institute senior researcher, Maria Rosario Jackson developed a framework to recurrently identify, monitor, and assess the cultural infrastructure of the neighborhood. The framework would enable Skid Row organizations...
Measuring Innovation: Evaluation in the Field of Social Entrepreneurship Mark R. Kramer Written for funders, this 43-page piece is about social entrepreneurship, its relatively new place in the field of philanthropy, and implications for evaluation. Developed from research with grantees and two dozen interviews with funders, it talks about flexibility, leadership, and risk in funding innovation, and why these are key. The clearly-written executive summary explains how the field of social entrepreneurship has invented its own approaches to evaluation that suit its fundamentally diff... article, evaluation, social entrepreneurship, grantmakers, indicators, sample evaluation tools
Model of State Arts Agency Values and Actions to Broaden, Deepen, and Diversify Participation Chris Dwyer This tool serves as a model to align values, actions, and measures of progress for State Art Agencies. In table form, it lays out a generic base for locating concepts of participation within a framework of concepts of public value and motivating values of different groups. The table can serve as a basis for developing the types of outcomes and measures related to State Art Agencies' actions to broaden, deepen and diversify creators, stewards and spectators/participants. Dwyer adapted this tool a... arts-related, diversity, evaluation, indicators, participation, framework
Animating Democracy Resource Moments of Transformation: Rha Goddess’s LOW and Understanding Social Change Suzanne Callahan Artist Rha Goddess’s Hip Hop Mental Health Project (HHMHP) integrates performance and dialogue to: educate about mental illness and tools for recovery; decrease social stigma; and influence public discourse about mental health. As part of Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, Rha Goddess and evaluator Suzanne Callahan of Callahan Consulting for the Arts focused on the impact of the one-woman performance, LOW, and post-performance dialogues on audiences’... article, case-making, civic engagement, data collection, evaluation, impacts, indicators, methodological strategies, outcomes, social change, surveys
Animating Democracy Resource My Soul to Take Case Study: Flint Youth Theatre, Flint, MI Sue Wood Flint Youth Theatre mounted a new play ...My Soul to Take, to serve as the backdrop for a diverse set of dialogue opportunities about the escalating issue of youth violence. The project aimed to coalesce fragmented efforts to address school violence by various agencies, deepen understanding of the causes and effects of school violence, and define options for action. A logic model created for project planning and evaluation became a constant and useful reference point and helped FYT to focus and... civic engagement, logic model, participation
Participatory Program Evaluation Manual: Involving Program Stakeholders in the Evaluation Process Judi Aubel This 75-page manual is written for larger organizations that involve multiple people in the evaluation process. Relatively dense and academic, it provides users with practical guidelines for conducting a participatory evaluation that, as presented, is particularly relevant to process evaluations. The methodology focuses on the analysis of program activities and strategies, which have been implemented, and on the development of "lessons learned" for the future, which may be imposed upon many or... participatory evaluation, guide
Point K Learning Center Point K Learning Center ("Point K"), a website and online workstation, was created by Innovation Network (Innonet), a leader in the participatory evaluation field and one of the first to make online tools available that could be used by smaller as well as larger organizations. Point K features practical tools and resources for nonprofit planning, evaluation and action. It is a major part of Innonet’s mission of sharing know-how to create lasting social change. Point K aims to help users asse... evaluation, logic model, networking, planning, program design, social change, assessment tool, database, online tools
Possible Outcomes/Indicators/Measures from the AEI: Police Calendar Project Chris Dwyer This is an example of an interactive worksheet charting desired outcomes, indicators, and potential data collection methods. The Arts and Equity Initiative (AEI) with the city of Portland, Maine, is based on the question, "Can art transform government?" and aims to address municipal issues through art-making exchanges involving artists and city departments/officials/union workers. One of AEI’s projects, the Police Calendar Poetry program, involved the creation of a calendar that included poet... indicators, worksheet
Preliminary Menu of Possible Outcomes/Indicators/Measures from the Starksboro Art and Soul Project, Orton Family Foundation Chris Dwyer The Preliminary Menu encompasses process outcomes (short-term), intermediate outcomes (during the life of the project), and impact (long-term, post-project results) for the Art & Soul Project in Starksboro, VT. Community members and researcher/evaluator Chris Dwyer used the worksheet to clarify what to measure and how. The format illuminates indicators of progress over time; it also includes a blank worksheet.  The Art & Soul Project aims to improve upon traditional approaches to pl... arts-related, capacity building, community building, data collection, evaluation, indicators, outcomes, process evaluation, qualitative evaluation, sample evaluation tools
Singing Our Praises: Case Studies in the Art of Evaluation Suzanne Callahan The 171-page book, Singing Our Praises, demystifies evaluation by highlighting glowing examples of how arts presenters have used it to learn about their success. Case studies tell the stories of presenters, artists and funders as they learned about the concept of participatory evaluation and put it into practice. These voices from the field provide real-life experiences, but they also reflect some of the more universal issues that will arise for other arts practitioners. The first case study, t... arts-related, context, data collection, evaluation, logic model, outcomes, participatory evaluation, program design, qualitative data, qualitative evaluation, sampling, surveys, framework, guide, interactive guide, interactive questions, manual, sample evaluation tools, worksheet
Speaking for Themselves: Advocates’ Perspectives on Evaluation Innovation Network, Inc. (Innonet) This 20-page report was produced by Innovation Network – a nonprofit organization that shares planning and evaluation tools and know-how by providing consulting, training, and online tools to help organizations create lasting change in their communities – with support by Annie E. Casey Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The report examines the current state of advocacy strategy and evaluation practice. It includes a section on the importance of interim measures of success and a li... advocacy, capacity building, evaluation, methodological strategies, outcomes, indicators, report, sample evaluation tools
Animating Democracy Resource The Without Sanctuary Project Case Study: The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA Jessica Arcand The Andy Warhol Museum presented the traveling exhibition, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America—photographic prints and postcards that document the history of lynching in U.S. The Without Sanctuary project aimed to refocus public attention on and to activate meaningful dialogue on racial issues in Pittsburgh. Two outside evaluators guided project organizers in evaluation efforts to understand the impact of the exhibition and dialogues on visitors as well as effectiveness of...
Animating Democracy Resource Two-Way Mirror: Ethnography as a Way to Assess Civic Impact of Arts-based Engagement in Tucson, Arizona Maribel Alvarez Finding Voice, a program supported by the Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) and Every Voice in Action Foundation, helps refugee and immigrant youth develop a better understanding of their Tucson neighborhood and U.S. culture by photographing and writing about issues in their lives and communities. As part of Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, TPAC collaborated with ethnographer and evaluator Maribel Alvarez to learn how principles and practices of ethnography...
Animating Democracy Resource Understanding Neighbors Case Study: Out North Contemporary Art House, Anchorage, AK Lynn E. Stern In 2003, the Understanding Neighbors project organized dialogues to address the question: “What is the social, moral, and legal place of same-sex couples in our society?” Performance video works served as dialogue focal points. The project engaged social researchers from the University of Alaska to conduct focus groups and create surveys to measure changes in participants’ pre- and post-meeting attitudes to determine the degree to which participants became more comfortable discussing same-sex...