Back at the start of 2021, we kicked off a strategic review process to reflect on the past couple of years, what we’ve achieved since becoming a registered charity in 2019 and think about our future. We ran a consultation process for members to feedback on a draft of our vision, mission statement and values. We’re delighted to present the beginnings of our new strategy in this short blog, alongside some of the key themes we’ll be focussing on in response to members' feedback.
ChEW’s Vision, Mission & Values
ChEW started life in 2011 as an informal gathering of evaluation professionals from a small number of charities, providing the opportunity to access peer to peer support to discuss evaluation related issues and challenges. Over the years this informal gathering grew with more people wishing to access these opportunities.
As our membership grew we found that we had a greater variety of members, from those who were starting their journey in evaluation to others with many years of experience, as well as people whose roles or interests included evaluation. We learnt that our members didn't just want a space to talk to others or to hear and discuss presentations, but also to use the membership to grow the importance and influence of evaluation in the charitable sector, whilst working with other organisations to achieve this. We also heard that members want us to engage more with the membership to provide them with what they were looking for from ChEW.
In response to the consultation, members told us they would like to see ChEW:
Use different formats to provide a greater variety in the themes and topics for events
Provide the ability and opportunity for members to engage with each other outside of events
Use the practice wisdom of members to influence and challenge, in particular, to increase the awareness and recognition of evaluation as a force for good in the charity sector
Our new vision, mission and values reflect this:
Our Vision: We want to see a world where the value of quality evaluation and evidence is recognised and used to create meaningful social change
Our Mission: Our mission is to maximise the impact of charities and voluntary organisations by empowering a community of evaluators and decision-makers
Our Values:
We Listen
Our activities are informed by the needs and wants of our membership
We actively seek ways to bring member voices into decision-making
We commit to continuous improvement - building on what works and changing what doesn't
We Act with Integrity
Our actions - what we say and what we do - are grounded in information and evidence that is accessible to all
We are open and transparent about how we make decisions
We say what we mean and hold ourselves accountable for our actions
We Inspire
We create space for members and partners to inspire each other, as we share and learn together
We are a voice for evaluators and lead by example - we are bold in challenging the status quo and speaking up for those working in evaluation
We welcome new ideas and opportunities, pushing the boundaries of what is possible
We are Inclusive
We welcome, respect and proactively seek a diverse membership, creating an inclusive environment for all
We pay attention to who is 'round the table, who isn’t' and actively bring in / reach out to unheard voices
We champion the importance of equitable evaluation practice, so that is recognised as a critical part of creating a socially just society
Our Next Steps
To turn this ambition into a reality, we are looking at how we create a sustainable ChEW model that generates value for members.
We reflected on what has been achieved since registering as a Charity and what you as members fed back to us. We established the immediate steps that can be taken to build the foundations for ChEW’s journey to empower a community of evaluators and decision-makers to understand and use quality evaluation and evidence to achieve greater impact.
To build these foundations:
We are developing OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to operationalise a set of steps that will begin the journey to helping ChEW fulfil its vision, mission and values; and set out how progress against these will be measured, which will be shared with the membership
We have recruited a Membership Engagement Coordinator to understand and put in place steps to improve the membership experience and offer, and the communications with members
We will clearly present what ChEW membership includes - access to event recordings; access to members forum; access to ChEW Meet & Chat
We will continue using themes so that in each quarter the quarterly members' event and the ChEW Bitesize event and other activities such as blogs relate to the overarching theme.
In the coming months, we will write again to set out how we are progressing in fulfilling these actions.
If you have ideas or questions or want to be more involved in helping us, we would love to hear from you at hello@chewgroup.org.uk