A BIG guide to using an outcomes approach
Introduction
You are probably reading this guide because you have a project or an idea for a project that you would like the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) to support.
Like other funders, BIG is an outcomes funder, so it is important for you to know what we mean by that and how this will affect you as an applicant or grantholder. This guide aims to help you do that, and covers the following aspects:
- identifying, understanding and explaining the need you want to meet
- being clear about your overall aim and the details of how your project will meet the need
- measuring your success
- learning from what you have achieved to improve your project throughout its life.
This guide sets out some of the main steps that you will have to take to plan and manage a project using an outcomes approach. This guide is also available on our website. We hope that the guide will be useful for a wide range of applicants, but it is primarily aimed at those who are new to the outcomes approach and want to find out more. For this reason we provide further information about some of the issues raised, more examples and sources of further support on our website.
What is an outcome?
Outcomes are the changes or difference that your project can make over time. An easy way to think of them is that they are the result of what you do, rather than the activities or services you provide.
For people, this might be things like improved health, new skills, more confidence or self-esteem, or getting a job. Some projects focus more on communities, the environment, or organisations. The outcomes might relate directly to them (such as tidier communities or more biodiversity) or changes in people that help benefit them (such as more awareness of environmental issues, reduced fear of crime, or more community participation).
What is an outcomes funder?
An outcomes funder like BIG is clear about the wider changes that it wants its funding to make overall. You can read about these outcomes on our website. Our programmes will normally have more specific outcomes, too. To get funding from a programme, you will need to show that your project will help us to achieve one or more of these.
This means that we ask you to explain in your application just what difference your project is trying to make by setting out your own intended outcomes. And if we give you a grant, we will ask you to report on how far you are meeting the outcomes that we have agreed with you.
Throughout this guide, you will see information like the following. This explains particular approaches to outcomes and grant-making that we use at BIG. Other funders may manage an outcomes approach slightly differently.
BIG asks you to be clear about the outcomes that your project intends to achieve. What you say is an important part of how we decide which projects to fund, and how we manage our relationship with you while you have a grant from us.
You should always refer to guidance for specific programmes if you wish to apply to BIG or other funders. There may sometimes be variations and this guide cannot take account of them all. But we will almost always ask you to develop SMART outcomes and SMART milestones to support them. If you are in any doubt, please contact us for advice.
|
Print
