13 Dec Bring Your Logic Model to Life – Julie Alsup, GPC

Do you consider a logic model an afterthought or simply a required attachment that is done at the end of the proposal process? I know I may be in the minority, but I love logic models! I like to utilize them as a dynamic tool to engage with clients or program staff.

Here are my favorite ways to utilize a logic model:

• To see if I’m on the right track – before I invest a ton of time writing when I’m starting a project and I have partial information from a client, I like to plug info in to the logic model to see where the holes are. I sometimes share this incomplete framework with the client to help them realize what information they still need to provide.
• To group information – sometimes listing out activities in a logic model helps me find common strategies or collections of strategies that help me organize my argument. For example, some projects have a capacity element to them as well as an intervention, and this can be demonstrated by grouping capacity activities under a “capacity” heading. This also helps me realize when it could be appropriate to articulate some process objectives that result from those activities in my outcome path.
• To tell truth to power – it’s not always comfortable to tell your CEO or your client that a project doesn’t make sense. The logic model can help you do this! If you have been given strategies that are incomplete or weak you can point to the logic model and show them the break down. It may be that you have not been given enough information to be able to demonstrate the logical path to the outcome or that the project activities themselves don’t actually impact the outcome and the project design team needs to go back to the drawing board.
• To help project design teams think about partnerships – as you help the team see the gaps in logic, use this an easy introduction to encouraging them with questions about “who else is doing this work” to further populate their “inputs/resources” column. If there are other entities working in the same space, are there partnerships they should be pursuing? If they are sure no one else is doing the work, have they articulated the lack of other services as a key input for their project?

If you missed our presentation on Logic Models, you can find all of our presentations here: Logic Model Series

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Competency #3: Knowledge of strategies for effective program and project design and development

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