Answers to the questions funders, programme managers, and MEL leads ask us most often before commissioning a research or evaluation engagement.
MEL framework engagements at Pinpoint Ventures are scoped as fixed-fee projects. Cost depends on the size of the programme, the number of indicator pillars, the languages and geographies involved, and whether we are designing from scratch or adapting an existing framework.
Most engagements run 8 to 16 weeks. We share a written scope and fixed fee after a free 30-minute discovery call.
End-to-end programme evaluations typically run 12 to 24 weeks from instrument design through findings validation. This includes scoping, sampling, instrument design, fieldwork, analysis, drafting, and a validation workshop with programme leadership. Compressed timelines are sometimes possible for mid-line and process evaluations.
Both. About half our engagements are with funders, philanthropic foundations, and bilateral or multilateral organisations setting investment strategy. The other half are with INGOs, social enterprises, and government-adjacent programmes implementing on the ground. We are explicit about our independence in either case.
Our deepest sectoral expertise is in public health, climate-health interdependence, education and early childhood development, gender and caste discrimination, child protection, livelihoods and financial inclusion, and welfare measurement. We also work in adjacent areas like aquaculture and circular economy when the methodological need fits our practice.
India is our home geography and where most of our work happens. We have also delivered evaluations and research in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and the Philippines. We do not take on work in geographies where we cannot meaningfully ground-truth the data.
Three differences. First, we deliver artifacts you can actually use — questionnaires, codebooks, indicator frameworks, district datasets, replication code — not slide decks. Second, our team is the team. The principal researcher who scopes the engagement is the one who runs the fieldwork. Third, we are domain specialists in development research and evaluation rather than generalists, so we know the literature and the field practice intimately.
Our reports are written in English. Field instruments are routinely developed and piloted in Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Odia, and Ho, depending on the geography. We work with local enumerator teams and translators for languages beyond our in-house capacity.
Yes. Capacity building is often part of our framework design and diagnostic engagements. We can also run standalone training workshops on theory of change, indicator development, contribution analysis, outcome harvesting, survey design, or qualitative coding. Workshops can be in-person or remote and are designed around your team’s actual current work.
Yes, for funds and portfolios with ongoing methodological needs. A retainer typically covers a fixed number of advisory hours per month, methods quality assurance on grantee work, and on-call support for design questions. We are selective about retainers and prefer to know an organisation through a defined project first.
Most of our deliverables are commissioned under client agreements and are not public. The work samples on this site are either explicitly published outputs, redacted demonstration extracts, or methodology notes prepared for general circulation. Anything client-confidential stays that way unless we have written permission to share it.
A 30-minute discovery call is the fastest way to get a real answer.
