Canadians and Their Money

Improving Program Evaluation“Community-based organizationsknow first hand their programsmake a difference. Unfortunately,organizations do not have thetime, stable funding, resources,and research knowledge toalways build integrated andmeaningful evaluation into theirwork. The launch of a newFinancial Literacy Strategy acrossCanada provides an idealopportunity to orchestrate andintegrate a research agenda andevaluation framework.”– United Way (Calgary)Over the course of our work, experts and stakeholders expressedconcern about the quality and reliability of existing evaluationmethods for financial literacy. Financial education providers,including community-based organizations, face the followingimportant challenges:• Many do not have the time or staff required to conductevaluations;• Most are not evaluation specialists, and they have little guidanceor research knowledge on how to go about properly assessingfinancial literacy outcomes; and• They often lack the necessary funding to hire specialiststo implement a sound evaluation process.Consequently, evaluation efforts tend to be ad hoc and post hoc rather than beingintegrated into the planning and delivery stages of financial literacy programs.Individual financial literacy programs must be properly evaluated so that theiroutcomes are captured, shared and integrated into future activities. Evaluationresults will help practitioners build on successful initiatives.The Government of Canada should act as a catalyst to raise the quality of programevaluation. It can do so in two key ways:a) By setting high evaluation standards for its own investments in financialliteracy programs; andb) By supporting and enhancing the evaluation capabilities of stakeholders,particularly voluntary sector delivery agencies. To build this capacity, theGovernment can facilitate access to national evaluation results and principles78TASK FORCE ON FINANCIAL LITERACY – V. Accountability