Find out why relying solely on anecdotes and gut instincts can be tempting but ultimately insufficient when it comes to measuring your impact.
Connecting Metrics and Survey
What are outcomes and why are they useful?
Readiness Indicators: the early warning signals that prevent programmes from failing
How to describe your outcome measurement approach in a funding application
When you’re writing a funding application and you reach that dreaded part that asks about your impact measurement approach or outcome framework, don’t worry - help is at hand!
The funding application question
How will you measure your impact:
How personal outcomes will be measured and evidenced, including the measurement tool(s) that you plan to use
How you plan to measure progress against outcomes over a period of time; and
Systems and business processes you will put into place to manage and demonstrate performance and underperformance.
How you could answer it
Outcomes will be measured by doing a pre-programme baseline assessment followed by a mid-programme midline assessment and then finally a post-programme endline assessment. The assessment will be a survey composed of questions that ask the client to rate themselves using various scales such as a Likert scale, for example "To what extent do you agree with the statement: I feel like I am able to use my time productively" from Strongly Disagree through to Strongly Agree.
As well as using the questions with a scale, we will ask each client to explain why they rated themselves that way. This response will be captured as text and will provide further evidence of why the rating is at it is.
Our case management system, www.makerble.com, allows us to track the Distance Travelled for each client's responses to each question over time. This will allow us to see for example the number of clients who have gone from (at the start of the programme) saying that they strongly disagreed that they were able to use their time productively to Agreeing or Strongly Agreeing that they could use their time productively.
Our case management will show us every distance travelled journey; which means that we will also notice the clients for whom there has been little to no improvement.
This means that we can identify the clients who are underperforming from an outcomes perspective. We can then work as a delivery team to adjust our approach to ensure that we tailor our support appropriately to help those clients onto a journey of improvement.
Considerations
When a funder asks you which Measurement Tools you will use specifically, they might be asking you to specify the survey you intend to use. There are various surveys available on www.Makerble.com/explore/surveys that you could pick from, e.g. the CORE10 (More info: https://www.corc.uk.net/outcome-experience-measures/core-measurement-tools-core-10/) which is available on Makerble: https://www.makerble.com/story_categories/2596.
Disclaimer: We wish you all the best with your funding application however Makerble accepts no responsibility if your funding application is unsuccessful.
