Funding Organizations

Funding organizations, whether federal agencies or private foundations, constitute one stakeholder group. Funders may use process evaluations for program accountability and effect evaluations for determining the success of broad initiatives and individual program effectiveness. Project directors and managers, another stakeholder group, use both process and effect evaluation findings as a basis for seeking further funding as well as for making improvements to the health program. The program staff members, another stakeholder group, are likely to use both the process and the effect evaluation as a validation of their efforts and as a justification for their feelings about their success with program participants or recipients. Scholars and health professionals constitute another stakeholder group that accesses the findings of effect evaluations through the professional literature. Members of this group are likely to use effect evaluations as the basis for generating new theories about what is effective in addressing a particular health problem and why it is effective.