The CEFP. Building evaluation capacity

The infusion of evaluation activity brought about by the American Cancer Society Collaborative Evaluation Fellows Project (CEFP) is a remarkable contribution to cancer prevention and control. Many lessons learned from the CEFP process are potentially beneficial not only to the American Cancer Society, but also to other organizations that seek to draw upon the success this project. One lesson for organizations that care about effectiveness and accountability is that, when outcomes matter, investments in evaluation become essential. By viewing evaluation in its larger context within the American Cancer Society, the CEFP delivers more value than the sum of findings from its individual studies. Especially pronounced are the contributions of the CEFP toward promoting organizational learning, generating useful products, and forming collaborative partnership--all of which are requirements for building an effective and sustainable evaluation system.