Outcome Logic Model Guide

This is the outcome logic model form. A blank version of the model is available as a word document on The Community Foundation’s website: http://www.tcfrichmond.org/receive/apply-for-a-grant/

The Outcome Logic Model illustrates the relationship between the efforts and resources your organization’s staff invest in program’s quality and your program’s resulting outcomes. A successful model gives our Program Officers insights into how your program works and how your staff monitors program progress. The model is intended to organize metrics that your program staff are already collecting in a way that is easily readable for our staff – not to compel your nonprofit to measure more things. A measure is only useful and informative to us if it is useful and informative to your organization. The following pages will walk you through the process of completing the model.

Long-term outcomes describe your ambitious vision for your clients, and are usually hard to measure. For example, an afterschool program providing wrap-around services to middle school students might have a goal outcome that “children will succeed in school.”

Measures of program outcomes speak to observable changes in client: Intermediate outcome indicators are usually easier to track than long-term outcomes. These are the short–term program outcomes your staff monitor to track progress towards long-term goals. Measures of program outcomes speak to observable changes in client: Knowledge Behavior Attitudes Resources Health

Example performance measures speak to: The Immediate Performance & Quality indicators are the short–term program quality and performance metrics your organization tracks to ensure your program is on its way to achieving its short-term outcomes and long-term goals. Example performance measures speak to: The quantity and quality of resources invested in the program The breadth and depth of services provided Client satisfaction Client retention/attrition Program scale

The performance measure column is where you list exactly how you track and measure program quality. These measures should imply a number, e.g. average _, # __, %__, etc. For example: % Children meeting with counselor 3x a week % Parents satisfied with the program Program attrition rate Average # hours children spend in tutoring

Outcome Measures indicate how you measure changes in client knowledge, behavior, attributes, or attitudes. As with performance measures, these measures explain the numbers you’ll enter in the “last year’s results” and “this year’s target” columns. Examples: % of Children attending ≥95% of school days % Students maintaining a 3.0+ GPA or improving their GPA by 1 pt. % Students with fewer than one suspension per year

For the Last Year’s Results columns, report the most recent statistic for each performance and outcome measure. Understanding how your program has performed in the past helps us put your targets for the current year in context. As before, only enter #s in these cells (unless it’s a new measure, in which case you can enter “baseline year”).

For This Year’s Target, for each measure, report your goals for the grant year. This year’s target doesn’t necessarily need to be “higher” or more ambitious than last year’s results. Rather, the data in these columns should give our staff a sense of what we can reasonably expect from an investment in your program.

In the Data Source & Methods columns, provide information on how and how often you collect data for each indicator. Information helps us put your results in context, and whether a statistic is reliable or should be interpreted with caution.

A completed model might look something like this. The form is meant to give you the flexibility you need to enter metrics that your program is already tracking. You can provide as many measures as you like. Feel free to delete or add rows as needed. As a guideline, we usually prefer to see at least two performance measures and one outcome measure.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or need assistance. Kaitlyn Wark Program Evaluation Officer (804) 330-7400 ext. 157 kwark@tcfrichmond.org