Logic Model
Author by: iClick2learn
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Hi everyone, Natalie Bramble here. I wanted to chat with you today about the logic model. What is also called program logic? This method was designed as a way for you to logically think through what it is that you’re trying to do be it a project a program or a service. It can also be used for things like infrastructure projects as well. Basically anything that you’re doing that has an intangible element to it. It’s a really valuable tool for that because you get to explore those things like building confidence as well as those more tangible aspects like economic impact. So it is a really great process for you to go through and it also helps you with those business cases and Grant applications you’re doing. So let’s get started. Let’s have a look at the logic model. I’ll give you an overview of that and then we’re going to do an example and you’ll have a downloadable template under the video. You’ll be able to download and complete for your project as we move through each of these videos.
So the logic model is made up of five key areas. First of these are inputs inputs think of that as resources. These are things that you need in order to do your project and I’ll call it a project even though I know it could be a service or a building. So these are the assets if you like it’s human assets like volunteers staff board members committee members as well as assets like funding to do something. We need facilities or equipment, you know, those types of things that you need to put into the project in order to start the project.
Activities are things that happen with those resources. So if you were saying for example, you needed access to a photocopier. What for what are you going to use the photocopy of four? Is it to produce training manuals? Is it to produce Flyers if you’re saying that an activity is a venue. Well, what do you need that venue for and what’s the return so it could be for example unit access to a community Hall. Well, if you’re hiring that Community Hall then there’s a higher fee associated with that Hall. So it’s basically the actions that are taking in order to deliver what it is that you’re doing.
Outcomes the second layer of impact or benefit the ripple effect outcomes. Now, we start to talk about things that are less tangible. So it could be increased sense of well-being that those youth gained from being in that Workshop. If it’s a grant writing training Workshop, which is the example I use in the next slide. We’ll talk about in a moment. If it’s that it could be an increased sense of confidence that hey I can write a grant for the first time. I’ve never done it before but now I’ve learned so much, you know, I’m ready to go. So it’s those sorts of more intangible things that happen. that the people are telling you those those people that participate if it’s a service, for example, it could be I feel so much better as a result of having access to our GP in a culturally safe and appropriate way for that person. So it could be that sense of cultural safety as well. So just think about that as the direct impacts that the people are actually reporting to you on.
We’ll now look at outputs now outputs are things like the benefits the benefits that happen as a result the last three columns your outputs. Your outcomes and your impacts. I want you to think of it as if it’s a ripple effect. These are benefits and the first layer of benefits. So the first ripple effect is outputs. The second ripple effect is outcomes and the last triple effect is impacts. And those those ripples each one of those sort of rings is based on a time. So outputs is about the benefits but their direct benefits. So for example, if you’re going to run a mental health workshop with youth what are the direct and immediate benefits that are delivered as a result. So it could be the number of resources referral Pathways the number of Youth that are attending their ages, you know, maybe they’re geographically dispersed so you could include that as well outputs tend to be more quantitative results. So the numbers the stats the percentages those sorts of things. Their direct and immediate as a result of for example holding the youth Workshop.
The last column is impacts now impacts are longer term. There is a key difference a particularly if you’re using this structure to apply for grant funding and that is your outcomes tend to be that we talked about in the last video talked to be tend to be sorry things that you’ve achieved within that 12 month period of grant that you’ve applied for. So you’ve applied for this funding you’ve got to equip this funding and the funders asked you what are the outcomes that you expect to achieve as a result. Well, they’re going to be within a 12 month time frame whereas impacts tend to be obviously those longer than 12 months differences that are made so, you know, we use the youth well-being workshop and and that that sense of the youth my game they may feel more confident as a result. Well, what does that actually help them achieve longer term if it’s a great writing Workshop, which I gave an example of earlier, then it could be that as a result of the fact that Feel like I can now apply for Grants. I’ve gone off and I’ve written a granted. I’ve we’ve run that and this helps my community group. So they’re the longer-term ripple effect. Now the logic model can be used not just for your program project service. Not just for that. One thing. This can also be used to think about your organization and the difference that you’re wanting to make so rather than at a program or project level. We look at logic model. And I operational governance levels. So we look at the whole organization and what the purpose of the organization is. So what is the impact that we want to achieve as an organization and you actually would start with this column. You don’t have to start with inputs. You can start with your impact and what you do is you question. So if this is the difference we want to make what are the outcomes that we need to see that tell us we’re on the right path. And then you ask in order for those outcomes to be achieved. What are the outputs that we need to be working towards and then again in order to achieve those outputs. What have we got to do in terms of activities? So if you talked about a Community Health Service, we want to make sure that our community is is healthy and I’m just gonna be very broad here. But we want to make sure that we have a healthy Community. Okay. What are we need to achieve as a result? We need to know and We need to obviously have somewhere to run the service. But if I take less sort of tangible approach, we need to ensure that the community is aware of the service and they’re accessing the service and that we’re able to support the community. So how many community members there are that you’re able to support, you know, you might say a percentage of that Community. You can translate that into numbers and then you know, if we backtrack to outputs you then know roughly how many doctors or psychologists or service professionals you need and how many appointments they actually need to to fulfill in order to achieve service to that many community members. So I hope that all so helps you understand that and so that’s an operational level. So the logic model is really valuable for that. The other thing that the logic model is really valuable for as well is that this helps you with your business case pictures and it helps you with your funding. If you think about the project plan and the budget, well, if you know what resources are your inputs if you know what they’re doing the activities that actually feeds into project plan and you know the resources and the cost of resources, even your volunteer time. You should be able to be really clear about what that looks like. The other columns your outputs and your outcomes. These are things that you say to your funder. Hey, we can actually achieve these within this timeframe the impacts because they’re longer term. You don’t write those into your Grant or your tender submission to say that we’re going to achieve this unless it’s a multi-year funding around but you can talk about impacts particularly, if you know in similar situations, you’ve managed managed to achieve those results.
Okay. Now I’ve talked through the model. Let’s actually have a look at an example and hopefully this helps you contextualize this a little bit more. I’ve just used a grant writing training Workshop. This is a very quick example that I’ve sort of put down. I’ve not tested this model. This is something that we really encourage you to do with your project what I mean by not tested is I haven’t gone to other stakeholders. I’ve just used this information and written this up from my perspective about some of the things that I know that people tell me. But what I would do and and strongly recommend that you do if this was a real situation that I was applying for support for or if I wanted to validate what we’re doing and if we are doing the right thing with our programs, then I would actually go on and have conversations with stakeholders. It is really important that you engage them in this conversation. And not just to validate what you said, but it’s amazing how many times I actually come up with things that you wouldn’t identify otherwise. So having a look at the first line, we’ve said that we need a trainer a resource to do the training and then we say okay, that’s great having a trainer. But so what what do they do? So we’ve got trainers that develop resources and they transfer knowledge again great if that happens. So what what’s the difference it makes and now we start looking at outputs. So the direct outputs are that there’s a number of resources and a number of hours training. There’s number of people that are attending and you could break that down as well further to the number of organizations. They representing for example geography demographics those sorts of numbers you could also put in but it’s also about an increase in knowledge. And again that’s direct. So a direct increase in knowledge is a result of attending the training and then you say so what what happens as a result if they’ve increased their knowledge then what’s that ripple effect. What’s the outcome? So you would Obviously that somebody who’s increased knowledge in grant writing is then going to go off and increase the number of Grants they apply for or write their very first one and also increase the number of grants that they’re successful with the grants that are awarded they’ve increased their confidence and of course, they’ve retained knowledge because they’ve got resources they can go back to and refer to and particularly if they’re a member of the iClick2Learn Library, they’re able to access those additional resources and videos that can help really embed some of that learning. So then we get the next level which is the impacts and how does that further help that helps? Because there’s x amount of money that’s going to community organisations because Community organisations are able to fund their services then they’re able to increase local employment. So, you know as a result in the second line talks about venue and let’s just say that we’ve had to see why catering. Well, of course that helps build sustainable or invest in community groups that can build sustainability. So this is just an example for you. That gives you an understanding of of what this looks like. And again, it’s those five columns and it is just about saying what is the difference we’ve made and and making sure that you map that difference. One of the key things to look at is the assumptions as well. It is important to document the assumptions and assumptions is the last box that I’ve got underneath this table of five columns. And the assumptions are about what are the things that you’re assuming to happen? I mean if we were talking about a youth Workshop anything really but I’ll just give you the example if we were talking about a youth Workshop then we would say well we assume That the youth actually want this and how do you actually make sure that’s the case you go and ask them you involve them in that conversation about your plans and about the need and how they believe it’s best deliver. So it is important to identify what the assumptions are in order to test those assumptions. We can’t build a successful project. If we’re not aware of the things that we’re assuming will happen or can happen. It might be an assumption that the project partner that you had in the past project is willing to continue to support you. For example So I hope this has helped you consider what the logic model is and or program logic if you’re using it for a specific program or service or project and and doing this work really helps you justify whether this is the right project to address the need that you’re trying to make a difference on in your community.
So I’m just going to do an audio described version of the logic model just to make sure that that anybody who does have a visual impairment is able to actually understand what the logic model is. So we have think of it like a table. So you’ve got five different columns and the heading in these columns. The first heading First Column heading is input. So these are your resources the second column heading is your activities and activities are things that we have to do. So we have a resource but what we actually do with that resource. The third column is outputs. And that is our those outputs are as a result of doing that activity. What is the result and then our outcomes a medium term so, you know in the the 12 month period or one year period what what’s the outcomes that our program service building Etc has managed to achieve and the impacts is a last column and that is that longer term flow and effect and giving the example. I’m just going to talk through what I’ve got in each of these columns. Just to help sort of embed that understanding around. What’s What’s um, you know in the example, I’m giving around what’s in those tables. So the first thing that we have is the trainer the trainer is a resource the trainer delivers these activities they develop resources and they transfer knowledge as a result of doing those activities. They achieve direct outputs from those activities and that is the number of resources that they deliver or the hours of learning that they deliver the number of people attending. They also people that attend the workshop because they’re transferring knowledge. They’re able to give people an increase a percentage increase in the knowledge gained. the fourth column which is outcomes. They increase confidence. They increase knowledge retention. They increase the number of Grants they apply for and increase the number of grants that are awarded. And at this point I’m going to leave impacts until the last point. We’re gonna go back to the next line and we’ll come back to impacts because what I’ve done is I’ve given an example of three different resources and we’ve worked through all of the four columns to those resources and in the last column impacts column. I’ve combined all of the difference so all of the impacts that each of these three bring to the project so the second line is our venue and let’s just say we’re going to hire a Community Hall and we’re gonna get CWA to do the catering. So of course, this is money to community groups. So two different Community groups Our Community Hall and the CWI and so how does that what are the outcomes that come as a result of those outputs of the hiring and the money to the for the catering is that we’re able to contribute to a sustainable Community Asset and with CWA that helps sustain a already organization and the third row is volunteering staff in community organizations. So these are resources. We need of course, he can’t hold a workshop without people attending and this one’s using a grant writing Workshop as an example. So we need to have volunteers and Staffing Community organisations attend. And so what we look at is making sure we have a diversity of organisations and a diversity of roles unless it’s a very specific targeted program, of course. So what we tracking outputs is we track the percentage and the type of organisation and the percentage of people across the community that have attended and the types of roles that have been trained that they represent that we’re training in so it’s not just volunteers. It’s you know, everything from a volunteer event coordinate out to somebody that works in a disability Organisation, for example, so, you know their perhaps and an admin or a business development team member, so we’re looking for that diversity in this particular. Purple we’re giving and so of course, what are all those things contribute to they contribute to building sustainable organisations? Because the more knowledge that’s increased the more likely that that’s actually able to increase the sustainability of organisations in a because they’re applying for tenders and sorry grants, but also the information does relate to tenders because they’re applying for Grants and they’re going to increase their success. But it also the outcome another outcome is also that there is knowledge sharing across the community, you know, when what someone learns something and you get to network with them and you learn from them and maybe they are in different roles as you know, if they’re a volunteer they might volunteer for four organisations. So they’re sharing that knowledge as well. And so all of these outcomes then build and link to impact. So the impact is the increasing dollars to community organisation and increase in local employment and increasing local Services money to local supplies because we’re using you know local Bakery for example in catering, you know, all of these things apply. We’ve got we funding community events. Then there’s an increase in in people’s consents of connectedness or mental health. They feel as a Committee Member of volunteer Committee Member, you know, they feel an increased satisfaction in their role. There’s an increasing group collaboration. When you bring people together to talk about projects and their Community assets and maintained. So this is an example of the types of impacts broadly that can be achieved. One of the key things to look at is the assumptions as well. It is important to document the assumptions an assumptions is the last box that I’ve got underneath this table of five columns. And the assumptions are about what are the things that you’re assuming to happen? I mean if we were talking about a youth Workshop anything really but I’ll just give it a youth example if we were talking about a youth Workshop then we would say well we assume that the youth actually want this and how do you actually make sure that’s the case you go and ask them you involve them in that conversation about your plans and about the need and how they believe it’s best to live it. So it is important to identify what the assumptions are in order to test those assumptions. We can’t build a successful project. If we’re not aware of the things that we’re assuming will happen or can happen. It might be an assumption that the project partner that he had in the past project is willing to continue to support you. For example So I hope this has helped you consider what the logic model is and or program logic if you’re using it for a specific program or service or project and and doing this work really helps you justify whether this is the right project to address the need that you’re trying to make a difference on in your community.