Define what your grant delivers, what changes for participants, and the evidence needed to report the difference. Includes a worked cohort example.
Outputs are the services or products a program delivers. Outcomes are the changes associated with that work, such as a new skill, changed behavior or improved employment situation. A training course delivered is an output; participants using the skill at work is an outcome. You need both: outputs help explain what happened, while outcome evidence helps you judge whether the intended change occurred.
By Sopact Academy · Updated September 11, 2026. This lesson combines cited public guidance with practical workflow recommendations. Figures and teaching scenarios are illustrative unless explicitly identified as a published case.
Grant Intelligence · Chapter 5
Bring: the outcome criterion from your chapter 4 rubric.
Leave with: one outcome statement, a defined indicator, a collection plan and a sentence explaining what the evidence can and cannot establish. Continue the fictional youth-program example, then apply the method to your grant.
The OECD evaluation glossary distinguishes delivered products and services from subsequent effects and higher-level impacts. Use your funder’s definitions consistently where terminology differs. The important practice is to state what each measure represents rather than relabeling every count as impact.
| Level | Question | Fictional youth-employment example | Evidence to plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | What work will we do? | Run job-search workshops and employer introductions | Delivery schedule and session records |
| Output | What was delivered or reached? | Four workshops delivered; 150 eligible participants started | Attendance and enrollment records |
| Outcome | What changed for participants? | Participants enter employment and sustain it for six months | Dated follow-up and a defined employment measure |
| Impact ambition | What wider change do we hope to contribute to? | More stable livelihoods for young people in the area | Broader evidence and evaluation appropriate to the claim |
The boundary depends on the program’s purpose. A completed referral is an output of a referral service; receiving appropriate support is a different result. A certificate may document completion or assessed competence, depending on what it certifies. Explain the measure rather than assuming its label settles the question.
Moving toward outcome reporting does not mean discarding attendance, services delivered or documents completed. Those records help distinguish a delivery problem from a theory that did not work as expected.
If few people started, a disappointing employment result may reflect recruitment or access barriers. If participation was high but placement was low, look at skills, employer demand and the transition to work. The counts do not supply the explanation by themselves, but they show where to investigate.
Use the same cohort across related measures. In chapter 1, the fictional program had 180 registrations, 150 eligible starters and 108 people attending at least three of four sessions. The attendance rate is 108/150 = 72% of starters, or 108/180 = 60% of registrants. Neither is an employment outcome. The denominator changes the question being answered.
A useful outcome statement names who should experience what change and when. “Empower young people” expresses an intention but does not tell a reviewer what evidence to seek. “Eligible participants enter paid employment within three months of completing the program” is more specific, though it still needs an operational definition.
Start with the question the grant should help answer. Does “employed” include temporary work, self-employment or a minimum number of hours? Does the three-month clock begin at completion or the scheduled program end? How will you handle participants who leave early? Agree on these rules before collecting the follow-up data.
Do not make the statement more ambitious simply to impress a funder. If your team can reliably measure skill use but cannot yet follow employment, say so and plan an appropriate next step. A modest, well-evidenced result is more useful than an unsupported impact claim.
The outcome is the change you care about. The indicator specifies how you will observe it. A target is the result you aim for; a baseline describes the starting condition. Keep these separate from the actual value submitted in a report.
| Definition field | Example to adapt, not a prescribed standard |
|---|---|
| Indicator and owner | Paid employment at the three-month follow-up; program evaluation lead |
| Eligible cohort | Eligible starters in the named intake, with the enrollment cutoff recorded |
| Numerator | People meeting the agreed employment definition at the follow-up date |
| Denominator | Report both the eligible cohort and the number with known follow-up status |
| Employment definition | Specify paid work, hours, contract types, self-employment and the evidence accepted |
| Timing | Three months after the agreed reference date; record actual response date |
| Source and method | Participant follow-up, with verification if consented, feasible and required |
| Missing data | Unknown status reported separately; do not assume unemployment or success |
| Version | Definition v1, approval date and applicable intake |
For six-month retention, create a separate definition. Being employed at a six-month check-in is not necessarily continuous employment for six months. Decide whether the measure follows the same job, any paid work, permitted gaps or a minimum duration, and collect evidence that can support that interpretation.
Continue the fictional cohort of 150 eligible starters. At three months, 100 have a known employment status; 60 meet the program’s employment definition. The other 50 have unknown status.
A responsible report gives these measures together. Calling the first figure “60% of participants employed” hides the missing follow-up. Calling the last figure the true employment rate assumes too much about the unknown cases. Describe it as the confirmed share and explain the response gap.
Look at whether missing responses cluster by location, program stage or other relevant characteristics you are permitted to analyze. Follow-up may miss people facing the greatest barriers, or people too busy in new jobs to respond. You cannot tell which explanation is right from the absence of a response alone.
Watch the example · 4 minutes 13 seconds
See a Sopact workflow from application and baseline to placement and follow-up. The demonstration uses synthetic records, not customer results.
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Ask a focused follow-up question such as, “What helped or prevented you from using the training in your job search?” Keep the answer attached to the appropriate participant, date and program stage, with suitable access controls.
A comment about transport may help explain missed sessions. A comment about employer requirements may reveal a placement barrier. Treat those as evidence to examine alongside attendance and follow-up, not as proof that one factor caused every result. Preserve contradictory experiences instead of selecting only the most favorable quote.
In a configured Sopact workflow, structured responses, uploaded reports and interview transcripts can stay connected to the same reporting context. AI can help organize themes and prepare summaries for review. Staff still check source passages, definitions and exceptions before reporting findings.
If employment improves after a program, the improvement is an observation. Attributing it to the program requires more: labor-market changes, prior experience, other support and selection into the program may also matter.
A before-and-after comparison can describe change for the people measured. It does not, on its own, establish what would have happened without the program. Use an evaluation design appropriate to the decision and claim. For a reporting cycle, it may be enough to state observed results, plausible contributions and limitations without claiming causal impact.
Keep this distinction in the grant rubric too. Assess whether an applicant has a credible outcome pathway and proportionate evidence plan. Do not reward an unrealistic promise of certainty over a careful explanation of assumptions. The theory of change guide explains how to connect activities, expected changes and assumptions.
Store the proposed outcome and approved definition with the award. Each progress report should identify the reporting period, cohort, definition version, actual result and supporting source. A revised target or indicator should be recorded as an amendment, with a reason and approval, rather than replacing the original commitment.
When grants use different definitions, compare only what is comparable. One grantee may count job offers and another may count paid work started. Do not add those figures into a portfolio “placements” total without resolving the difference. Shared definitions can support consistent reporting while allowing each grantee to retain additional measures that matter to its work.
For examples of the final reporting format, browse impact report examples or read How to Write an Impact Report. Use them to organize evidence, not to turn an uncertain result into a stronger claim than the data supports.
Suggested reporting sentence: “At the three-month follow-up, 60 of 100 participants with known status met the employment definition. Status was known for 100 of 150 eligible starters; 50 remained unknown. These findings describe observed employment and do not establish the program’s causal effect.”
Check before continuing: someone else can identify who is counted, reproduce the calculation and distinguish a target from a reported result. Keep the evidence gaps visible and assign an owner to the next collection step.
An output is a delivered service or product. An outcome is a change associated with that work. Four workshops delivered is an output; participants applying the skill at work is an outcome.
Attendance usually measures participation or reach rather than the intended change. It remains useful for understanding delivery and access. Explain its role in your program instead of treating attendance alone as evidence of success.
The outcome describes the change. The indicator defines how it will be observed, including the population, timing, source and calculation. A target is the intended value; the actual result is what the evidence shows.
Do not assume an unknown status is failure or success. Report how many people have known status and explain your denominator. Apply any required reporting convention transparently and distinguish it from a claim about unknown outcomes.
An improved result does not by itself establish that the program caused it. Other influences may contribute. Match the evaluation design to the claim and distinguish observed change from causal attribution.
Yes. Prioritize the outcomes relevant to the grant decision and feasible to assess. Give each a clear definition and collection plan; avoid adding measures that have no intended use.
Yes, when the question and method suit the change being studied. Keep the source and context, represent different experiences and explain limitations. A selected quotation does not establish how common a result is.
Your next task is to check whether an application asks for the evidence needed to support this outcome. Keep the same definitions through selection, award and reporting. Do not make applicants repeat a narrative simply because the information moves to a new stage.
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