Accountability, evaluation and the role of evidence for charitable funders

This paper explores the link between accountability, evaluation and identity in the context of charitable funders. We argue that the notion of ‘evidence based’ action has influenced these charities to make claims for their evaluation processes that are established to account for activity rather then to generate knowledge. Although the terms evaluation and accountability are frequently used interchangeably, there is an essential difference as the site of interest in accountability is the relationship between funder and funded, whilst for evaluation, it is quality of knowledge produced. We look at the consequences of this distinction on identity for two funders in an analysis of website pamphlets, published to promote the use of evidence