This document is Part 1 of a Guide to Network Evaluation and offers the field’s current thinking on frameworks, approaches and tools to address practical questions about designing and funding network evaluations. It was developed along with a casebook Evaluating Networks for Social Change: A Casebook that provides profiles of nine evaluations that detail key questions, methodologies, implementation and results while expanding what is known about assessment approaches that fit how networks develop and function.

What will you learn in the guide?

· How an evaluation can help a network function more effectively and promote network health
· Elements of a network that can be evaluated
· Approaches, methods and tools for evaluating networks
· How to design a network evaluation that fits the? network type and investment (e.g., size, stage of development; issue focus)
· Key questions to ask in a network evaluation
· Examples of network evaluations and what has been learned from them