Anyone have a good explanation of Outputs vs. Outcomes for grantees?

saramerten

Hi there,

I continue to struggle to get applicants and grantees to submit outcomes rather than outputs in their applications and annual reports. I am looking to provide a guide/detailed description on our Foundation website and was wondering if anyone has a good resource to share that I might use for our website (credit will be given of course!)

Thanks in advance!

KristinSmith

We ask applicants and grantee to explain the impact of the scholarship or grant on the individuals, community, etc, depending upon the recipient. We ask grantees to send pictures and explain the impact on the community, # of individuals participating, etc. We are getting much better responses with this question.

JanetShing

We provide examples in the grant application itself. In our question that asks for measurable goals/outcomes, we include this after the question: Example: 1) In the next year 65% will proceed to more advanced work; 2) Program capacity will expand by 15% to allow for 150 additional youth to participate, increasing the total number in the program to 1,300. Also, we offered a (grant) evaluation clinic a few years ago and keep the presentation and slides on our website.

WendyAbel

We created 5 general metrics and require our applicants to select two of the five. This allows us to be able to report on the same metrics, and not try to measure multiple outcomes. These common metrics allow us to measure the same 5 areas to report to our donors. We created the 5 based on what we wanted to be able to report externally.

LaurieAbildso

@WendyAbel, would you be willing to share the metrics your collect?

IsabelEljaiek

I've learned that, regardless of which end of the data collection spectrum you swing, to get to outcomes within a strategy that contains multiple organizations, you'll have to do that work internally. The exception to this would be scenarios where capacity/financial support is provided to organizations specifically to collect and report a data matrix that connects the grantmaking across orgs. Always looking for ways others solve this, as I've collected prescriptive metrics and I've collected metrics by providing a logical questionnaire within the application/reporting that is agnostic to a strategy but supports aggregation. I prefer the later, as it allows for more nuanced analysis. My work is then to bring in the research to make reasonable claims to outcomes. But even still, the outcome aggregates are used for benchmarking and communication.

JulieWright

Now that we have started using them ourselves, we are going to be requiring applicants to prepare logic models. Which really helps illustrate the difference between "how much or how many" (outputs) versus measured behavior or knowledge change (outcomes). Here's an example of the model we developed for an expansion project based on one of our grantee's work. (c) 2022 Texas Health Resources

JamesPatterson

@WendyAbel - I'd be interested in seeing your five metrics too if you're willing to share. We've been looking at how we can aggregate impact data to share with stakeholders. Our funding areas are very diverse which makes it difficult to identify common metrics. Great conversation!

WendyAbel

@JamesPatterson Sure. Not a problem. Send me an email, and I'll send them to you and others that may be interested. wabel@tmf-fdn.org.