Great question! In partial answer to your question, there is a commonly thrown-around figure that 5-10% of an organisation's budget should be spent on evaluation (e.g. see INTRAC). But this is a pretty basic heuristic (indeed in the linked article they talk about a study that found a range of 0-25%).  I think at a minimum all organisations should have some kind of theory of change (even if it is very basic) and should be collecting basic monitoring data to enable project management. But I think we do need more thinking and guidance around when and how you decide to do more M&E (especially the E!) and decide how to do this within your means. In other sectors this is also often driven by demand from funders too.

Yes agree! I think the broader international development world where I have worked has a lot more freelance consultants who provide these services and it would be great to see more consultants come into the EA space. We also know though that cost can sometimes be a barrier so we are also trying to offer some kind of probono support and the MEL community to help people get started.

Yes totally agree and we have been talking about putting together another post about how this might be applied in practice so great to hear you are interested.