Once an organization has identified the social capital elements in its programs and specified pathways through which its activities contribute to social capital formation, it can formulate plans to evaluate its social capital impact. Somewhat artificially, we break down this process into steps 4 and 5: Step 4 involves the basic design questions, such as the study's timeframe and the choice of study populations; Step 5 concerns the nuts and bolts of fielding a survey-based evaluation. You can also access a list of social capital survey questions intended to help organizations develop their own survey instruments.

STEP 4: Designing the Evaluation

The design of the evaluation hinges on answering a sequence of questions discussed below. The answers to these questions flow directly from the earlier discussion of what the program is trying to do.

WHO IS THE STUDY GROUP? (expand)

HOW CAN WE BEST IMPLEMENT A BASIC "BEFORE AND AFTER" STUDY FRAMEWORK? (expand)

SHOULD WE USE A COMPARISON GROUP? AND, IF SO, WHO? (expand)

WHAT SHOULD WE MEASURE? (expand)

STEP 5: Conducting an Evaluation