outcome measurement

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One of the biggest challenges for a small charity is what to measure (and what not to measure). If you haven't read the page of this website on theory of change, go and read it now and then come back - because it will be fundamental to your choice of what to measure.

Theory of change distinguishes between strategic outcomes (the ultimate outcomes that you are seeking from your participants or beneficiaries) and intermediate outcomes (the ones that happen along the way as part of the process of change or transformation). That's a good start - simply having that outcomes framework will give you a good sense of what to measure. You will absolutely need to measure your strategic outcomes if you can - that will be your ultimate test of success (and something that you will want to wave happily in front of your funders and other stakeholders). But you should also be measuring intermediate outcomes too, as earlier stage predictors of change and success.

Standardised outcome measures are important in terms of credibility, comparability and (sometimes) financial quantification. In the mental health space, for example, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales have become a standard for measuring improvements in wellbeing across many different types of intervention. ONS4 has become a wider standard, particularly as it provides a quick and relatively straightforward path towards financial quantification of impact. But many other measures exist (e.g. GAD7, PHQ9, DASS21) just in the mental health space. And  equally, there will be other outcomes in your theory of change that you will want or need to evaluate with your own bespoke measures, particularly where external standards are lacking.

Clearly, consistency is really important so that you can build up a good picture of your impact over time. Which of course means that you need to invest time and effort up front to make your outcome measurement framework as effective and established as possible. It can be deeply frustrating to have to choose between continuing with a suboptimal measurement framework for the sake of continuity or making wholesale changes to make it right and losing comparability over time. Like most things in life, patience and good investment up front is often the key.

The choice of outcome measures, ultimately, is more art than science. Having a good theory of change will help massively - but there will be many more choices to make in developing an effective measurement approach. We can help you to balance the blend between standardised and bespoke measures and in creating the collection, retention and analysis tools to make the most of your outcome data.