Evaluation is what we do.

Our Services

  • We work with your team to design the evaluation that works for you. This collaborative process results in an evaluation framework that your team can carry out on their own.

  • Together, we plan an evaluation that answers all your important questions. Our team collects and analyzes data, then produces engaging, insightful information products.

  • To build your capacity, we provide customized evaluation training and coaching. Self-paced courses are available through our Eval Academy. Booking your first coaching session is easily done online. Customized training for your team is available by contacting us.

Our Approach

At Three Hive, we follow a tested and proven “Three U’s” approach to our evaluations. In a longer-term or developmental evaluation, we may use several cycles of the Three U’s.

In the Understand phase, we define who needs to know what when, and how we will collect, analyze and report on the necessary data. We believe that strong evaluation questions are the key to guiding a quality evaluation. Expect a lot of collaboration in this phase.

Understand

Uncover

In the Uncover phase, we collect data. Data collection methods are always defined in the Understand phase, and often include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation. In some projects your staff support this phase, and in others it’s all us.

The Utilize phase is about putting the information to work. We analyze all available data and synthesize findings to create information products that answer your questions. These products are often written reports, but may be memos, presentations, or videos.

Utilize

About evaluation

  • We’re partial to the Canadian Evaluation Society’s definition of evaluation: “Evaluation is the systematic assessment of the design, implementation or results of an initiative for the purposes of learning or decision-making.”

  • Lots of people! We mostly work with non-profit organizations, governments, healthcare organizations, and a few private social ventures. Leaders and managers who run programs or initiatives often hire evaluation consultants when they have evaluation or learning questions that need answers, but don’t have the internal resources available.

  • Some evaluations can be completed in a couple of months, while others are ongoing for years. It depends on the nature of the initiative, the nature of the questions, and how much is already known. We’ve worked on short-term projects that are initiated and completed in a matter of weeks, or on multi-year projects that respond to emergent needs or investigate longer-term outcomes.

  • Again, that depends on the nature of the initiative and what needs to be learned. If you’re planning a new program or thinking about evaluation, a common suggestion is to allocate between 2% and 20% of the overall budget to learning and evaluation.

Want to skip right to the part where we schedule a meeting?

Thinking about working with us?

Here are some of the questions we’ll ask you at our first meeting. Don’t worry if you don’t know all the answers!

How familiar are you with evaluation?

What is your organization’s mission?

What does your program do?

Who does your program serve?

What problem does it solve? And how do you know it’s a problem?

How long has your program been operating?

What are your program’s biggest challenges?

What does your program do best?

How is your program currently evaluated, if at all?

How is your program funded?

What is your evaluation and learning budget?

What are your evaluation timelines?

Looking for training?

We’ve been busy developing self-paced courses to build your evaluation skills. Our first course, Program Evaluation for Program Managers, is now available at a special introductory price.