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In the first segment, we defined what a logic model is.
Then, we talked about how you'd use a logic model.
In this segment, I'd like to talk a little bit about how you actually go about
building a logic model, and I give you some examples.
I think it's the best way of showing you what the process might look like.
So let's take a look at an organization out west in the US called First Descents.
First Descents is a cancer-serving organization that tries to help people
who have been diagnosed with cancer reclaim control over their lives and
have a more positive outlook about their recovery.
They do so through a series of kayak trips,
mountain expeditions, community events.
They do all types of wild jumps with bungee chords, all kinds of external
outdoor activities aimed at empowering and making people feel good about life.
Now, this organization's a new organization.
At least when they constructed this logic model, they were only a couple years in.
And they started out with defining the kind of activities.
That was the easiest thing for them to start with.
And so, when you construct a logic model,
you don't always have to start on the left or on the right with the impact link.
Sometimes you can start with what you know which is what they actually did.
So they started by defining core activities, and then they went
to the left and said, what do we actually need to get to those imports?
And then they started defining that fact they needed the campers.
They need the staff, board, volunteers.
They needed donations, event revenue, all types of other resources that they would
need to make those activities possible.
So they had the front end of the model, the inputs, and the activities.
Then, they turn to the question, well, how do we know if we're getting an effect?
How do we know if we're having results?
Then, they went to their data, and they have been collecting a lot of information
about the outputs of their programs, and they had data on the number of campers,
the number of camps organized, the number of camp days, the number of locations,
the diversity of the campers, the number of returning versus new campers,
the number of messages exchanged on their internet boards.
All types of counts were actually present in their data, and they pulled it out and
entered it into their logic model to kind of give a sense of, well, if we do
all of these different activities, how will we know how much we're doing?
And a good logic model like this one has a connection.
If you look across, you can track from activities to those outputs for
each one of those.
There's a metric.
Now, outputs tell us how much work gets done, but
they don't tell us did the world change?
Did we affect anyone or anything?
That's where First Descents started and say, well,
we have two types of outcomes, short-term and longer term outcomes.
On the short-term side,
they want to help the people who are between the ages of 18 and 39.
That's their target group.
They want to help them build new skills, develop a new sense of confidence,
a connection, a new network.
They want to give them a sense of release and
the fact that they can operate independently without a crotch.
But longer term, they want to do something a little different.
So they defined a different group of outcomes that were a bit more long-term,
stretched out into the future.
They want to build confidence, allow people to breathe, and have a sense of
control, turning cancer victims into survivors and
people who have a sense that they can extend and control their lives.
So outcomes, they broke down I think usually into two categories,
short-term and long-term.
But then the challenge for them actually as a new organization was to simplify and
state the impact.
Here they struggle a little bit to narrow it down.
They had a number of different possible ideas about the impact,
because all of them were on the table.
They wanted to define and draw attention to this cancer population, which wasn't
getting as much attention as others, these 18 to 39-year-old population.
They wanted to change the perspective of people about cancer.
They also were interested in creating a movement of these 18 to 39-year-olds,
a national movement of people who want to fight back and
regain their independence and sense of confidence.
And finally, they had a broad goal of contributing to the broader movement
in the cancer community of reducing the impacts, the psychological and
physical impact of cancer on society.
So this model has a lot in it.
It has a lot of data in it, but in one place you can look at this and
get a pretty good sense of what this organization is trying to accomplish.
Let's take a look at another example.
Here's a museum in New York, and I'm just showing here one of their logic models.
This is a museum that has logic models for each of its different programs.
From exhibitions to outreach, they have a series of logic models.
This one is for their outreach programs, and it's El Museo del Barrio,
a museum in New York focused on Caribbean and Latin art.
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Caribbean and Latin American cultural identity is appreciated and enhanced.
That's what they're after, is the appreciation and
enhancement of this cultural identity.
How do they do it?
Then we move all the way to the left, to their inputs.
Here they have listed what they really are trying to garner to make their work
possible, donors, volunteers, staff, grants, partner organizations, and
physical buildings that they need to operate within.
The activities include three main things, festivals that they run, educational
outreach programs, and public programs designed to draw people into the museum.
They have a long list of outputs for the organization.
I've listed some here. I've edited it a bit, but
you'll see they're counting the number of festivals,
the number of education program, the number of student participants, number of
arts educators that they have trained, the distinct communities and schools that
they've served, and the modern printed and educational material that they produced.
A lot of good output measures.
And then, they condensed down,
I like, their outcomes into three main goals that they're after.
One is increased public understanding of Caribbean and Latin art.
Do people understand that this is a very serious and growing domain of culture?
Second, have they succeeded in generating
a new group of museum-goers who are interested in Caribbean and Latin art?
Have they cultivated the next generation of museum and art lovers?
Third, have they trained arts educators who can
carry forth their message and their interests into the broader community?
If you look across this logic model, this one's a little bit more streamlined,
has a little less in it, but again, it's a program-level logic model.
So you can imagine each one of these core areas that they're interested in,
having its own model, and
then those being aggregated up into a single organizational model.
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They have four main activities, theological activities, social activities,
financial activities, and managerial work that goes on.
Now what was unusual about this organization as they developed their logic
model and they went into their data is they had a phenomenal amount of data
on outputs.
Unit counts from the number of people attending
church to the number of people who give.
They had minute breakdowns of all kinds of output measures
related to the work in their congregations.
The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is very broad, but across all these elements,
they have a very strong, long commitment to collecting data and using it to manage.
So when it came time to build a logic model,
they had a lot of output measures to draw on.
Then they came to a more difficult task which was to define, well,
what is the outcome that we're actually trying to produce?
And here they came up with five critical outcomes.
One is building strong, powerful congregations.
Second, shaping public policy.
Third, strengthening faith.
Fourth, growing leadership within the church.
And fifth, human transformation,
helping the people in the congregations themselves.
Finally, there was an interesting moment when they constructed this logic model,
when they asked, well, what does it all amount to?
What are we trying to achieve?
And there, they came up with a very simple impact name and
was actually given when I was working with them on this logic model.
It was given by the bishop who stood and said, I know what the impact claim is.
It's a just and peaceable kingdom.
And when the bishop declared that to be the impact statement, everyone agreed,
and we moved right along.
But it's a broad impact claim but
it's one that captures the ambition of this organization.
So, across all different types of organizations, from programs to
whole organizations, from social services to arts to religious organizations,
anyone can construct a logic model, and I think they can benefit from it.
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Peter FrumkinProfessor
