Getting Inside the Story: Ethnographic Approaches to Evaluation

To get insight into a complex community, problem or process of change, sometimes you need to look beyond conventional research or evaluation methods. Ethnography is a powerful way to step inside the culture of an organization or community, hear ongoing feedback from multiple points of view, and understand a program's real impact. This guide describes ethnography's benefits and pitfalls, and how the method is used to document, evaluate and improve approaches to youth engagement, HIV education and neighborhood policing. Part of the publication series, Evaluation Techniques: A Series of Brief Guides, published by GrantCraft, to help grantmakers weigh the advantages of different evaluation approaches.