Theory of Change

Mission
Outcomes
What do we do and why
do we exist? What would success look
Strategies like after 1 year? 2 years?
3 years?
What tools or processes
would we need to impact or How will we know that we
influence the identified have succeeded?
groups/structures?
How will we measure our
What resources (financial, success? What indicators
Assumptions time, skills and knowledge) will we use?
would we need to employ
What problem will we these tools and processes to
address? effectively influence the
target groups?
What is the underlying
cause? What resources do we have
already?
At what level do we want
to work? What resource would we
need to acquire or develop?
What impact will we Reflections
have? How can we leverage the
Is this something our
resources of people who are
organization can work
How will a solution to the already working on the issue
with?
problem look? or problem?

Are there opportunities to Will our key stakeholders

partner? be comfortable and in
agreement with this
Who would we consider proposal as a reasonable
Target and accurate analysis?
partnering with to address
Who/what would be the issue?
What is our plan of
impacted by our work? action?
What skills would potential
How do we reach, partners bring?
influence or impact the Who would we consider to be
identified groups or our competitors?
structures?
How do we stack up against
What tools will we use? the competition?

Flow chart developed by Valerie F. Leonard, based on model from Mapping Change: Using a Theory of Change to Guide
Planning and Evaluation, by GrantCraft, a project of the Ford Foundation