Evaluation Capacity Building & Logic Model Development

Client:

Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA)

Creative Forces

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

Geography:

United States

ServiceS:

Program strategy and development

Capacity building and training

SectorS:

Cross-sectoral

Background

ArtsWA engaged Informed to work with 20 organizations within its association in developing individual logic models and theories of change with the goal of identifying common outcomes to be used for reporting collective impact at a Commission level. Over two days, we led representatives from the organizations – most of whom did not have a research or evaluation background – through a series of activities and exercises that introduced logic model concepts in an accessible way. All organizations left the workshop with a logic model useful for immediate implementation, yet activities like breaking down a cookie recipe into logic model components and developing SMART indicators for sample arts programs also enabled participants to take the lessons learned back to their organizations to further refine their logic model with colleagues and other stakeholders. In total, this workshop helped facilitate the creation of over 20 different organizational logic models.

objectives

  1. Identify the key elements of a logic model and apply this knowledge to individual situations.

  2. Develop a logic model for each organization in attendance that includes organization or program-specific activity, input, output, outcome, and impact objectives and measurement methods.

  3. Justify why tracking progress against established program outcomes is a worthwhile investment of time and resources.

  4. Empower participants to effectively use logic model for program improvement and refinement.

Activities

Pre-work booklet development: Informed International created a fillable workbook to orient participants to the logic model development process. Clients were supplied with a sample program design and corresponding logic model, along with detailed instructions for creating each element of a draft logic model for their organization.

Logic Model training workshop: Informed trained 20+ organizational representatives on creating and using logic models to meet program goals and outcomes. This included 1-on-1 engagement with participants in reviewing their draft organizational logic models and finalizing them for immediate implementation.

Resources

Blog post about Creative Forces Summit II

Images of pre-work booklet used to orient participants to Logic Models:

Note: The complete Creative Forces Summit II pre-work booklet is an internal document