This summary reports the key findings of field research carried out by Charities Evaluation Services (CES) between November 2006 and March 2008. The research included 682 responses to an online survey to third sector organisations and 89 responses to an online survey of a wide spectrum of funders. Focusing on England, we carried out face-to-face and telephone interviews with 88 national, regional and local third sector organisations, statutory and independent funders and commissioners, and evaluation support agencies and evaluators. Additionally, we carried out a series of interviews with providers of monitoring and evaluation software systems and their users. The field research was supported by a wide review of relevant literature.