This article revisits a longstanding controversy regarding the place of organizational goals in evaluation. While early writers saw goals as the yardstick against which outcomes are measured, others argued for a goal free evaluation. We propose a Goal Focused Evaluation, which acknowledges the problematic relationship that may exist between a program's declared and operative goals. It assumes that a comprehensive evaluation of a program's effectiveness is often best achieved by identifying both types of goals and possible gaps between them, thus enabling organizational stakeholders to refocus program goals, rechannel resources and, if desired, contract a ‘second stage’ evaluation of the newly reshaped goals. The article examines the processes, benefits and limitations of a Goal Focused approach to the evaluation of social programs, as it was applied in a study of a shelter for homeless youth in Tel Aviv.
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