A framework for demonstrating impact – how do we know community action makes a

difference?

Sheila DurieThe SROI Network

How do we demonstrate outcomes at the moment?

• Name the methods or tools that have been used by you in the room

• How successful have these methods been in demonstrating impact

• How successful has measuring impact been in changing decisions?

Start with principles – the theory of change

• Theory of change – the basis of demonstrating impact

• Shows the impact of a project/programme or intervention by:– making outcomes for different stakeholders

explicit– understanding the relationship between short,

medium and longer term outcomes– Showing why we believe the activities create

these outcomes

An example – for planning new activity or evaluating existing activity

Domestic violence is a problem we want to tackle or we want to better describe how our programme

makes an impact

Identify what underlying causes can lead to the problem e.g. one might be that young people have been conditioned to think that domestic violence is acceptable and therefore they have not developed the awareness that they should avoid violence in a relationship

Identify the intervention that could change this e.g. educational activity within the community that changed attitudes

Intermediate outcomes might be:Increased awareness; change in attitudes towards domestic violence; more

skills to help people avoid violent feelings or behaviour

The longer term outcome is:Reduced domestic violence across a whole community

How do we know we have a good theory of change?

The quality of a theory of change is judged by some key criteria:

• We can measure it (find indicators of change)• It is meaningful• It can deal with complexity without becoming

useless• Can we see a chain of cause and effect between

intermediate outcomes and the longer term goal?• Can we find published research that supports our

theory of change?

Negative brainstorming

Or, how not to demonstrate impact

In groups, list what you would do in order to show that your organisation does not make any impact at all – what would you do?

E.g. Don’t speak to any of your stakeholders

Some issues that may have come out of negative brainstorming

Being clear about why you are trying to demonstrate impact or who you are trying to influence, so you can pick an appropriate method

Do planning and analysis before collecting data to make the best use of resources and time

Measuring the right things – i.e. outcomes not activity

Embed and use results to improve practice