An online learning resource for community groups
Module 5: Showing you’ve made a difference
Introduction
The purpose of this module is to help you to find out whether you are making a positive difference to people’s lives. It will help your group to:
Understand how your activities improve the lives of the people who take part
Create a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan which helps your group:
to monitor your activities
to carry out evaluation of your activities so that you find out what is working well and what you could do differently
to produce the indicators and gather the evidence (often required by funders) so that you know, and can show others, the impact of your groups work.
Learn from what you find out and put it into practice.
There are lots of guides to monitoring and evaluation and the words and ideas used can be quite difficult, even if your first language is English. This module uses some words which we think are important that you get to know and we think we have explained them as clearly as possible. Sometimes other terms are used by different organisations but the module will help you understand the main ideas.
Linking to your Project Plan
In order to complete this module, you will need to have a project plan or activity plan for the work you are doing - you might already have done this in Module 4. If you don’t have this, then please go to Module 4 now which will help you to create it. The plan will help you to think about:
the changes that you want to see (often called outcomes) and
the activities that you can do to make these changes happen (often called outputs).
Before you put your project plan into action, you will need to agree how often you will check that your plan is on track and make any changes needed. This is called monitoring.
It is also important to think about how you will know if you are achieving the changes you want to see overall (your outcomes) and what information you will need to gather to find this out. This is called evaluation.
When to plan monitoring and evaluation
You need to think about monitoring and evaluation at the beginning of your project, preferably in the planning stage, rather than leaving it until the end of your project. If you leave it until the end of your project or activity, then you will have missed valuable opportunities to gather useful information and feedback from people and it will be harder for you to show that your work is having a positive impact.
Explore the modules
Let’s get started - Finding out if you’ve made a difference
Discuss:
Why is it important to find out whether you have made a difference?
How well do you currently do this as an organisation? What more could you do?
Write your answers on a flipchart or on this form.
1. The things that tell you change has happened - Understanding indicators
Monitoring and evaluation helps you to know and show others, that you are making a difference.
In order to find out whether you are making a difference, you need to look at the changes that you want to see happen in communities or in people’s lives as a result of what you are doing. These are known as your outcomes and you will have written these as part of the project planning in Module 4.
You then need to think about how to gather information that will tell you to what extent that change has happened.
Now watch this presentation on indicators. It will help you to think about
the things that tell you that positive change is happening
the different signs of progress which help you know you are achieving your outcomes. These are called indicators
the difference between hard and soft indicators.
Group discussion 1 - Outcomes and indicators
Look at your project plan and the changes that you want to see (your outcomes). If you have completed Module 4, you will find this information in the Project Plan Template.
Add your outcomes (as developed in Project Plan Template in Module 4) to the Module 5 - Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.
For each outcome, discuss:
What can you count - numbers of people who benefit from your work or numbers of activities you deliver.
Other types of evidence of how people benefit from your work will be needed. Often you will be able to see and hear this at your events, but to allow others to understand this you could collect:
Photographs of people enjoying the services and events you run
Written quotes from them about how your work improves their lives. Perhaps gathered in short evaluation forms or informal interviews or focus group discussions.
To do this you will need to think about what questions you ask people to gather the information.
Add all the details into the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.
2. Gathering evidence
You also need to think about what materials you need to gather to show that this change has happened. These materials and information are often called evidence.
Watch this short presentation on gathering evidence.
It will help you to think about:
What evidence it would be useful to gather
Different ways of gathering evidence. These are called methods.
You can also have a look at the Methods Factsheet in Module 3 to help you think about the best ways to gather evidence for your activities.
Group discussion 2 - Gathering evidence
Look at the outcomes which you added to the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan and the indicators.
For each outcome and indicator, discuss:
the information that you will need to gather to find out and demonstrate that you are making a difference, and
how you are going to gather it.
Add all the details into the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.
3. How monitoring and evaluation work together
We have already looked at how monitoring and evaluation help you to know that you are making a difference and to show how you do this to others. Now let’s recap on how they work together.
Understanding how your project is working and whether you are making an impact is essential so that you can:
Know how well your activities are working and whether you are making the changes you want to see
Make any adjustments to how you work while the project is ongoing
Demonstrate to others that you are achieving your aims and that any funding you get is being effectively used.
It’s also important to remember how this module fits with the other modules in the overall resource, especially the ones that help you to:
Think about what you want to achieve as a group (Module 2)
Work out exactly how want to do it (Module 4)
Make sure it’s in line with your communities needs (Module 3)
Make effective pans for how you deliver your services (Module 4)
Be able to prove that what you do is effective (Module 5)
Use this evidence to get the funding and resources that you need.
Group Discussion 3: Reviewing your plans
If you have completed Module 4, you may already have agreed how often you are going to monitor your Project Plan and who is going to do it.
However if not, then agree now how often you are going to monitor your Project Plan and who is going to do it. Agree the dates that you will meet to monitor the plan.
When you meet again to monitor your plan, discuss:
What have we done so far? How has it gone?
Any issues arising?
Anything we need to change or do differently?
Once you have agreed any changes or things you need to do differently, note these changes in your Project Plan.
Similarly, you can do the same with your Monitoring and Evaluation Plan to check that everything is on track and to make any relevant changes.
Continue to monitor your Project Plan and the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan until you have done all the actions. Once you have completed your plans, then it is time to update it or even to start again and to make new plans.
