A Template to Show Results by Mapping Out How You Got There

To assist with impact evaluations and more clearly understand how process affects impact, it’s helpful to create a logic model.

Also called a program theory, the model is a flowchart that maps the sequence of events intended to effect a change. It shows the relationships among a nonprofit’s resources, the ways it uses them in programs, and the results of those programs.

According to the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, these are the components of a logic model:

• Inputs/Resources: “the human, financial, organizational, and community resources a program has available to direct toward doing the work,” such as money, facilities, and staff members’ skills and time.

• Activities: “The processes, tools, events, technology, and actions that are an intentional part of the program implementation,” such as workshops, counseling sessions, career fairs, and supply drives.

• Outputs: “The direct products of program activities,” which might include “types, levels, and targets of services to be delivered by the program,” such as the number of people who participated.

• Outcomes: “Specific changes in program participants’ behavior, knowledge, skills, status, and level of functioning,” such as the number of people who measurably benefited from an activity.

• Impact: “Fundamental intended or unintended change occurring in organizations, communities, or systems as a result of program activities,” such as a change in the unemployment rate or elementary school test scores.

Organizations that have developed logic models and posted them online include the Butler Institute for Families, Crittenton Women’s Union, and the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention.

Here’s a logic-model template provided by United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg in Virginia, to help your nonprofit evaluate the impact of its programs.