The Road Ahead

Our analysis of the major opportunities and challenges facing the voluntary sector in 2024. Learn more

Sarah Menzies

Sarah Menzies

Senior Consultant, Evaluation

Sarah specialises in equitable evaluation for charities and funders. She can support your organisation with research, evaluation, training and facilitation.

Sarah has 18 years of experience working in mixed methods research and evaluation. She has a long record of working with marginalised communities. This includes work with LGBTQIA+ people, refugees and asylum seekers, and young people. All her work is informed by equitable ways of working.

Sarah joined NCVO in 2015. Since joining the team she’s led and contributed to multiple external evaluations of varying complexity. This includes campaign evaluations for food poverty, youth advocacy and health charities.

She’s also worked on longer-term learning partner projects. These involved working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders including staff, trustees, volunteers and beneficiaries.

Sarah leads our funder plus work with clients including Trust for London, BBC Children in Need and the Association of Charitable Foundations. She also designs and delivers training as part of our open programme, and bespoke in-house training for different clients. She specialises in designing interactive courses to meet participants’ needs and runs at least 20 workshops per year.

Areas of expertise

  • External evaluations involving methods such as large scale surveys, case studies, interviews, focus groups and creative methods all brought in on time and to budget.
  • Mentoring organisations in self-evaluation including collaboratively creating theory of changes and frameworks, data collection design and support, analysis, reporting and dissemination.
  • Training and facilitation for funders and the wider sector, including staff, trustees and beneficiaries, on any topic related to evaluation.
  • Creating train-the-trainer programmes and communities of practice for clients including BBC Children in Need and Inspiring Impact.
  • Evaluation support for funders and grantees including Trust for London, BBC Children in Need and Nationwide Foundation.
  • Implementing evaluation methodologies such as realist evaluation and contribution analysis.

Sarah's clients have included

  • FareShare: Senior consultant evaluating impact on individuals.
  • Diversity Role Models: Learning partner for an anti-bullying programme in schools.
  • Asylum Reform Initiative: External evaluation of their strategy and 2022 campaign.
  • Just for Kids Law: External evaluation of casework.
  • Macmillan: External evaluation of their indirect volunteering partnerships.

Get in touch

If you're interested in working with Sarah or finding out more about our consultancy services, please complete the contact form below.

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