At CFAC, we carefully design our programs to address the specific needs of our stakeholders. Our evaluation program allows us to measure and understand the impact of our programs, and informs constant improvement of our methods and products. The planning process for each CFAC workshop includes a review of related feedback from past workshops. Many of our most successful workshop topics have come directly from stakeholder input, including Women Led Tractor Mechanics and Reducing On-Farm Carbon Footprint.
Confidentiality
We value the input of all of our partners and stakeholders and we take your privacy very seriously. Evaluations are never shared beyond the planning partners for that specific program. We do use evaluation information to demonstrate the impact of our programs, and we will sometimes use anonymous quotes from surveys and evaluations to share the impact in our participants’ own words. We also report results including quotes and aggregate numbers with our granting agencies.
Unique Identifiers
In CFAC’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program, program participants are asked to provide their birthdate on evaluations as a unique identifier. This allows us to understand impact for individuals across multiple programs, and still respect the privacy of our participants. Thank you for providing your unique identifier on evaluations so that we can better understand how to support successful new farmers in Montana.
We can’t do it without you!
We can’t do any of our work without you and we value all of your input and ideas. Your evaluation responses help us to improve the local food system in the following ways:
- Helps CFAC improve our programs
- Helps us secure funding, and show funders that our programs are making a difference
- Shows the importance of our work to support local farmers
- Helps keep CFAC programs low cost or free
- Ensures that our programs remain relevant and effective by identifying approaches that work and approaches that need improvement