Welcome to the

Charity Evaluation Working Group

The Charity Evaluation Working Group (ChEW) is a community for people working in and around charity sector evaluation and learning. We bring together professionals who care about making evidence useful, practical, and meaningful.

Evaluation work often means balancing rigour with practicality, building learning cultures in stretched organisations, and navigating constant change across the charity sector. It can sometimes feel isolating.

ChEW exists to create connection, support, and shared learning across those challenges. Through events, conversations, and peer exchange, we create welcoming spaces for people to share ideas, reflect on practice, and learn from one another.

Whether you are leading evaluation work or simply interested in how charities use evidence well, ChEW offers a place to connect, learn, and contribute.

Join a network of 300+ evaluators

Meet with peers and learn from experts at our events

Access discounted training offers

Shape standards and the future of evaluation

What our members say:

"ChEW offers a place for peer support and learning - broadening your network and sharing challenges and ideas"

"I am able to tap into the knowledge and expertise of evaluation specialists, all of whom work in the charity sector and therefore understand the importance of ethical, co-produced evaluation"

"A ready-made network of expert friends I can turn to for advice and inspiration"

ChEW Members get exclusive access to all of our events that cover a range of charity evaluation-specific topic areas.

Our events are an opportunity for Members to access best practice advice, insights and presentations that highlight the latest thought-leadership and sector trends.

Want to attend our events? Become a ChEW Member today and we'll see you there!

Join today

On the blog:

Read about the latest thought-leadership and sector trends in charity evaluation.

Commissioning Evaluation for Innovation, Impact, and Continuous Learning

From inspiration to intention In 2024, we (GambleAware) attended ChEW’s first Impact and Evaluation festival as commissioners keen to deepen our understanding of how evaluations can be made more equitable and relevant. We left inspired by the festival’s focus on equity and the brilliant work shared by colleagues across the sector. That inspiration reaffirmed our journey towards making commissioning, evaluation, and learning more inclusive, accessible, and ethical. Last yea

How can evaluators help to build the field of place-based working in the UK?

After more than 20 years exploring place-based change, we’ve seen both inspiring practice and persistent confusion. What exactly counts as “place-based working”? How does it work? And are the approaches used today fit for all places and all challenges? Looking at international practice—particularly in the US, Canada and Australia—it’s clear the UK has more ground to cover. That’s why we set out to help build a stronger, more coherent field of place-based work. Not just by re

Break the Rules, Drive the Change

For too long, evaluation has followed unwritten “rules” — thick reports, strict independence, and rigid hypotheses — that were built for a different time. But what if those same rules are now holding us back from achieving the real, lasting impact we want to see?

Evaluation and learning: A clash of cultures or logical companions?

Jo Scott (Ipsos UK) and Diane Redfern-Tofts (The Health Foundation) For the many charities that are seeking to support and develop new ideas, solutions, and ways of working to address long-standing and complex social challenges, there is a need to create a "learning-positive" culture. This creates a space where teams can be agile, adapt to new information, and evolve their strategies. But what happens when you introduce "evaluation”, which is about making an assessment and ju

Welcome to the Charity Evaluation Working Group