Splash & Ripple: Using Outcomes to Design & Manage Community Activities

Title: Splash & Ripple: Using Outcomes to Design & Manage Community Activities
Author(s):Coyne, Kathy, & Cox, Philip
Corporate Author: Plan:Net Limited and Strathcona Research Group
Subject: Non-profit organizations – program planning | Multiculturalism
Publisher: Canadian Heritage
Date of Publication: 2008
Language: English
Edition: 4th edition
Material Type: Report

Abstract: This guide was prepared for the Canadian Heritage (PCH) Multiculturalism Program to help groups use outcomes when designing and managing programs. It draws from a wide range of sources, making it relevant to other community programs funded by Canadian Heritage and to the non-profit sector as a whole. Outcome measurement is easier to understand and use when you have a mental image of how it works. We use an image of a rock dropped in water (Splash and Ripple) to show what we do and the difference it makes in our projects. Read this handbook once through to help you build that image. You will see that outcome measurement is a process of piecing ideas together as in a puzzle – one activity here, an immediate or intermediate outcome there, until the puzzle pieces fit together logically. This process is explained by laying out key terms in a results chain. Once you have read the handbook, return to page 4 for suggestions on getting started using outcome measurement in your organization. An example of a completed framework and indicators can be found in the Appendix. By using the handbook in this way, you will begin to internalize how outcome measurement works; it will become easier each time you use it. More importantly, it helps you visualize meaningful and achievable changes in your community. Outcome measurement is different from previous planning approaches because it challenges us to reach beyond traditional goals and objectives to describe how our community will be different.

B. NON PROFITS/B.03 PROGRAM PLANNING/2008 splash_ripple.pdf