An Evaluation Support Account (ESA) is when ESS has a contract with a funder so that grantholders can access ESS training and/or 1-1 tailored support and the funder pays. We might also run other workshops and shared learning programmes.
Feedback from funders and funded organisations shows that ESAs:
- Build organisations’ evaluation confidence and capacity
- Use learning from evaluation for celebration and improvement
- Improve their reporting to funders
- Help them apply successfully for funding from other funders
ESAs are great for helping small organisations access support they would not otherwise be aware of or realise they need.
We currently have an ESA with:
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation
If you are interested in evaluation support and currently have a grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, we suggest you contact your grants officer to ask if any additional funds can be made available to help with this.
Other funders will often pay for evaluation support so third sector organisations should always ask their funder if that’s an option.
The short presentation below has learning from a previous version of our ESA with The National Lottery Community Fund.
Lessons Learned
Short document outlining lessons learned while providing grantholder evaluation support.
Looking for more information about ESAs?
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