The first step in the impact management cycle is to describe your outcomes and identify your theory of change.
Outcomes are changes that stakeholders experience as a result of the activity. Changes occur as the result of other changes, and one change leads to another – a theory of change.
The benefits of an outcomes-based approach are:
- Keeps you focused on your aims & target group
- Clarity about your purpose
- Adds more structure and focus to service delivery
- Increases awareness and understanding of how change happens
- Identify what works well and what could be improved
- Motivates staff, volunteers and users by providing evidence of progress
- Increases your ability to respond to the information needs of funders
- More successful fundraising
This database contains a collection of outcomes data that others have used and which can be drawn upon when creating your outcomes plan and pathways.
For a more detailed understanding See the Social Value Principle 2: Understand What Changes (download) and accompanies “A Guide to Social Return on Investment” (2012).
This document is a technical guide on how to collect the information you need about ‘changes’ and how to analyse this information to produce a set of well-defined outcomes. It helps you to decide what outcomes to measure, explore the links between the outcomes, and create a chain of events.