How much work should you put in?
The time and effort you should put into self-evaluation will depend, in part, on your resources.
Your programme guidance notes give information on the percentage of your budget that can be allocated to evaluation. Larger projects should be able to carry out a more extensive piece of work while smaller projects may need to focus on a few key things they want to find out.
You can also include data that you’ve collected as part of your monitoring.
Who should you ask for their views?
We encourage you to plan and conduct your evaluation so that it brings in the views of a range of your stakeholders – for example project users or beneficiaries, staff, community representatives, statutory authorities, and sponsors/funders.
If you’re a smaller project with more limited funds, you may be better to concentrate on getting more in-depth information on the impact of your project on its key users.
As part of our work with young people, we have carried out research into ways of involving young people in evaluation, entitled 
Engaging young people in evaluation and consultation This publication outlines various aspects of the question of how to engage people in planning and running projects. - 343KB (2005). Many of the same guidelines apply to other groups.
Links
BIG advice line 0845 4 10 20 30
