It is not uncommon to ask yourself, “Have I actually accomplished anything?” Especially after spending weeks, and sometimes months, planning and executing a Cancer Awareness Campaign, Pink Out Day, or Fundraiser, you can’t help wondering if you’ve spent your time well. It’s not always easy to see the results of our work, and it’s important to know how to evaluate your event for effectiveness. So spend a few moments evaluating your event.
If you had concrete goals to support a family who lost a loved one to cancer, or to financially support a cancer patient, evaluating the outcome is much easier. Laying out clear goals that you were able to communicate to others from the beginning of the campaign also gives you a concrete measure for evaluating the results. Did you raise the amount of money you were hoping to? Were you able to cover the costs of the campaign, as well as donate the money you had set out to collect? Did your volunteers feel included and useful? Did everyone have a good time? If you answered yes to most or all of these questions, then you’ve had a successful campaign.
It can be more difficult to define success if your primary goal was simply to raise awareness, but having clear goals from the beginning give you something to look at. Did you have as many people show up as you had hoped for? Was your event supported by management, if you were holding a corporate or school event? Was your location a good, great, or poor choice? Did the weather cooperate, or did you have a weather back up plan? Did you widen your sphere of engagement by reaching out to the community? Was the event fun? Did you enjoy yourself, as well? Yeses to the majority of these questions indicate success.
Goals, goals, goals! Defining your objective before you begin is perhaps the most important in this type of event. Because you aren’t able to follow people home to evaluate their lifestyle changes, you can only evaluate the quality of the information you’ve provided and the reception of that information by your guests. Did you offer quality information? Was the information widely distributed? Did you hit your participation goals? If you held an event where a guest speaker was invited, were they well received and was the information they offered timely and informative? Were you able to engage the community around you? Was your even supported by the people you felt were important? Did everyone have a good time? Any nos that you encounter during this evaluation are merely an opportunity for improving the event for next year. A majority of yeses mean that you’ve achieved success!
Whatever your goals or rate of success, one thing is certain; as we take away the mystery surrounding cancer by offering education, when we donate money to research and finding new treatments, and as we encourage people to make better lifestyle choices, to learn to self check and seek help early, we become a part of a community that is fighting cancer and winning. We may not win every battle, but together we can win the war!