Logic Model Template
A logic model is a one-page argument that your activities will produce the change you are claiming. Funders ask for it because it exposes whether a plan holds together, and the place it usually falls apart is the arrow between outputs and outcomes, where a proposal quietly assumes the hard part.
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What yours needs to cover
- ✓ Inputs: the staff, money, partners and materials the work depends on
- ✓ Activities: what you will actually do, described so somebody could observe it
- ✓ Outputs: the countable results of those activities
- ✓ Outcomes: the change in people or conditions, split into short, medium and long term
- ✓ Assumptions and external factors, which is where an honest model says what it depends on
How to use it
- Start from the outcome you are claiming and work backwards, which is harder and more honest.
- Keep outputs and outcomes separate: a number of sessions delivered is not a change in anybody.
- Write down the assumption behind every arrow, then decide whether you could defend it.
- Check that every activity in the narrative appears here, and delete any that produce nothing.
Logic Model Template FAQs
What is the difference between an output and an outcome?
An output is what your activity produced, such as forty workshops delivered to three hundred people. An outcome is what changed as a result, such as a measured increase in the skill those workshops taught. Funders read the two very differently.
Does every proposal need a logic model?
No, but many funders either require one or ask for the same reasoning inside the project description. Building one is useful even when it is not requested, because it finds the weak link before a reviewer does.
What is a theory of change?
A theory of change explains why the activities are expected to work, usually with more narrative and more attention to assumptions. A logic model is the compact, tabular relative of it, and some funders use the terms loosely.
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