Monitoring, Evaluation & Outcomes

How to Identify your Outcomes Monitoring & Evaluating Progress

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Session Outline

What is an outcome Identifying and developing outcomes What is Monitoring Why monitor How to monitor What is Evaluation Why Evaluate

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Outcome Funding
Increasingly becoming the norm for funders

including the Big Lottery What is an outcome?

The results that you hope your activity/intervention will make The changes/differences that your project will make to the people/area involved Relevant to the activity being delivered Language includes improve, decrease, increase, develop, sustain

We dont purchase an activity, we purchase

results - BLF

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Difference between Outputs and Outcomes

An output is the direct product of any
activity delivered e.g. number of classes taught An outcome is the benefit or change for participants after the activity e.g. new knowledge, increased skills

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Developing an Outcome
An outcome must be SMART
Specific - who or what will change, how much change
or benefit is expected, when will change occur

Measurable - can you measure the outcome Achievable - create a baseline to see where you are
starting from, dont over-estimate the probable outcome

Realistic - be realistic in the potential achievement Time Bound - identify timescales for achieving your
outcome - milestones should be identified
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Developing an Outcome
Think about the AIM, the intended
OUTCOMES and the ACTIVITIES you will do to reach those outcomes What needs to change for your project to reach its overall aim What activities will be delivered to help you achieve those changes
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Case Study - The Riley Readers

Aim - to increase literacy among teenagers Needed to achieve 2 outcomes in pursuit of their
aim
Teenagers had the desire to read more (soft outcome) Teenagers had greater access to books (hard outcome)

Two activities established to achieve these

outcomes
A free library A reading club
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What is Monitoring
All organisations collect records and notes of

what they are doing. This simple checking becomes MONITORING when the information is collected in a planned, organised and systematic way Monitoring information is collected at specific times when you bring this information together to help you assess progress you start to EVALUATE
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Why Monitor
Allows you to check the progress of your
work on a regular basis For accountability - allows you to prove success and progress Funders will frequently ask in applications how you intend to monitor your projects activities Funders may require regular updates on data collected
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How to Monitor
Think about ways of collecting information
that will best fit your project Be clear about who will collect each piece of information, even at the application stage Make sure that workers know why they are collecting the information Develop a monitoring system

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Case Study - The Riley Readers

Undertook initial research to generate baseline

data which they could compare future trends Data collected

How many books the library had available on a daily basis How many teenagers borrowed library books How many teenagers attended the book club

Interviewed readers

What is Evaluation
Process of asking questions about your
project Gathering evidence of your projects effectiveness, difficulties etc Analysing the evidence and your project Being prepared to act on the results Monitoring is routine and on-going but EVALUATION is an in-depth study
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Why Evaluate?
Provide focus to your project Improve practice and delivery Provide feedback to funders Show what difference your project has

made Influence others - help with fund-raising Motivate staff, volunteers and participants
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What do you Evaluate?

Differences you want your project to make
(outcomes) What are the services on offer (outputs) How well the services are being delivered (processes)

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Case Study - The Riley Readers

Evaluation
List of all verbal responses to questionnaires 20% read more since joining the club; but 40% hadnt read more but had made new friends Asked questions about their service Are there enough non-fiction books? Is the club room suitable for reading/concentrating?

Change Practice - used the evaluation info:

Realised that they needed to focus more on the reading and less on the social aspects of the club Enabled them to improve their service
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