Identifying Stakeholders

This KnowledgeBase archive includes content and external links that were accurate and relevant as of September 30, 2019.

All evaluations have multiple stakeholders. A stakeholder is defined as any person or group who has an interest in the project being evaluated or in the results of the evaluation. Stakeholders include funders, project staff and administrators, project participants or customers, community leaders, collaborating agencies, and others with a direct, or even indirect, interest in program effectiveness.

For example, stakeholders of a school-based program created to encourage the development of interpersonal and conflict resolution skills of elementary students might include the program's developers, participating teachers, the school board, school administrators, parents, the participating children, taxpayers, funders, and yes, even the evaluators. It is important to remember that evaluators (whether internal or external) are stakeholders, and not neutral third parties, as we so often think. Evaluators have a vested interest in what they are doing and care about doing it well.

To ensure that you have gathered multiple perspectives about the salient issues, involve as many stakeholders as possible in initial evaluation discussions. Otherwise, the evaluation is likely to be designed based on the needs and interests of only a few stakeholders–usually the ones with the most power––and may miss other important questions and issues of stakeholders who are not included at the table.

Of course, involving every stakeholder may not be realistic. However, try to consult with representatives from as many stakeholder groups as possible when designing or redesigning the evaluation plan, and provide them with timely results and feedback. We also encourage you to involve a manageable subset of stakeholder representatives in an evaluation team or task force. This team should come together, face-to-face if possible, to make ongoing decisions about the evaluation. Continued use of this team throughout the evaluation process (not just at the beginning of evaluation design) may help reduce project staff 's concerns about evaluation and increase the amount and reliability of information collected. It will also increase the likelihood that recommendations will be accepted and implemented. Although this step may be time-consuming and fraught with the potential for conflict, it is one well worth the time and effort. Involving many stakeholders will help ensure that the evaluation process goes more smoothly: more people are invested and willing to work hard to get the necessary information; project staff concerns about evaluation are reduced; the information gathered is more reliable and comes from different perspectives, thus forcing the team to think through the meaning of contradictory information; and the recommendations are likely to be accepted by a broader constituency and implemented more fully and with less resistance.

Things to Remember …

• Gathering input from multiple stakeholders helps you remain aware of the many levels of interest related to the project. You and your evaluation team will be better prepared to counteract pressure from particular stakeholders for quick fixes or a rush to judgment when that is not what is best for the project.
• Stakeholders will have different, sometimes even contradictory, interests and views. They also hold different levels of power. Project directors have more power than staff. Legislators have more power than primary-grade students. Your funders have a particular kind of power. Ask yourself: Which stakeholders are not being heard in this process? Why not? Where can we build consensus and how can we prioritize the issues?
• Evaluators are stakeholders, too. What are their interests? How might this affect how the evaluation is designed, which questions are focused on, and what interpretations are made?

Source: W. K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook, Chapter Five Planning and Implementing Project Level Evaluation, pgs 48-51

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