How stronger outcomes can make your next grant proposal more competitive.
Your nonprofit just launched an exciting new program. You know it’s going to help the people you serve; you’ve hired someone to lead it, and now you just need to secure the funding.
You’ve filled out plenty of grant applications, so this should be a breeze. You knock out the familiar questions (thanks to that master grants document you have on file). Then you get to the outcomes portion of the application.
You know roughly how many people you’ll serve and what services you’ll provide. But what exactly will change for people because of your program? And how will you measure it?
Suddenly, the development team is standing in the program team’s office asking questions that haven’t been fully answered. Precious time is spent trying to quantify impact so you can finish the application and secure the funding you need to keep that new program moving.
Sound familiar?
This scenario has become increasingly common as nonprofits compete for more limited resources. Government funding cuts, shifting priorities, and the loss of grants that organizations may have once considered reliable are creating additional pressures across the sector. Funders have difficult decisions to make about where to invest their resources, which makes it increasingly important for nonprofits to demonstrate not only what they’re doing, but what is happening as a result.
What happened because of your program?
Nonprofits tend to be very good at talking about activities. “We held workshops.” “We provided tutoring.” “We distributed meals.” Those things are important, but they aren’t the same as results.
This is where the distinction between outputs, outcomes, and impact becomes important. An output might tell us that 50 people completed a workforce development program. An outcome tells us that participants gained new skills, secured employment, or increased their income. Impact looks even further ahead to the long-term change the program is intended to create, such as greater economic mobility not only for participants, but for the community as a whole.
The goal is to show how your organization’s work leads to meaningful change for the people you serve and determine how you will track and measure that impact. Ideally, you aren’t figuring that out for the first time when you start a grant application.
Why this matters to funders.
Funders increasingly expect organizations to demonstrate that their programs create meaningful, measurable change, not just provide services. In many competitive grant processes, reviewers assess whether applicants have defined measurable outcomes, realistic targets, and a clear plan for evaluating success.
Organizations that can demonstrate this connection are often in a stronger position because they can clearly explain not only what they plan to do, but how they will know whether it worked. Strong outcomes help reviewers understand the value of an investment and increase confidence that the organization can deliver meaningful results.
Do the work upfront.
A logic model is a tool that can provide a roadmap for doing this work before a funding opportunity is even on the table. It creates a consistent picture of a program by connecting its resources and activities to its outputs, outcomes, and intended impact.
More important than the document itself, however, is the process required to build it. Rather than beginning with the activities an organization wants to provide, the logic model process starts by getting clear about the problem you’re trying to address and the results you want to achieve. From there, you can work backward to determine which activities will get you there, what resources those activities require, and what you’ll need to measure along the way.
Taking the time to work through those questions in advance can uncover gaps that might otherwise surface during the grant-writing process. You may realize that you’re doing a great job tracking participation but aren’t measuring what changes for participants. An activity may not connect as clearly to an intended outcome as you thought. Or you may discover that the outcomes you’ve defined don’t align particularly well with a funder’s priorities, which can help you decide whether that opportunity is worth pursuing in the first place.
When you’ve done this work upfront, grant writing becomes much clearer. Instead of starting from scratch each time, your team has one consistent place to reference what the program promises to do, who it serves, what it measures, and what success should look like. The time invested upfront often saves dozens of hours later while improving consistency across proposals, reports, and communications. In many ways, the proposal begins to write itself because the hard thinking has already happened.
Bring the right people to the table.
That hard thinking shouldn’t fall entirely on the development team. Building a logic model works best when the people who understand the program, the people responsible for funding it, and the people measuring its results are part of the process together. Program staff, development teams, and leadership often discover they have different assumptions about what success looks like. Through the logic model process, organizations establish common definitions, shared expectations, and greater alignment around intended outcomes. This alignment strengthens not only grant applications but also decision making, communication, and program management throughout the organization.
At Hedges, we bring relevant stakeholders together over a few short sessions and begin with the problem, goals, and desired outcomes before working backward to activities and resources. The process creates a shared understanding of what a program is intended to accomplish and how the organization will know whether it’s succeeding.
That alignment can solve a very practical problem for nonprofit teams. Development staff have the information they need for funding opportunities, program staff know which results to track, and everyone has a more consistent way to communicate the organization’s impact.
A clearer picture of impact.
For 100 Black Men of Indianapolis (The 100), developing a logic model provided an opportunity to examine the outcomes it was measuring for its Team Mentoring program. Through the process, the organization identified new outcome measures that better reflected the program’s impact and ultimately gave the team stronger evidence of the progress it was making.
“The progress that we saw on these new outcome measures allows us to tell a more compelling story about the impact of the program,” shared Kraig Kinchen, CEO of The 100.
The value of that clarity doesn’t end when a grant application is submitted. Logic models can help organizations evaluate and strengthen existing programs, report results to current funders, communicate with prospective donors and corporate partners, and create greater accountability internally. Organizations may have different logic models for different programs, and those models can evolve as programming, community needs, and available data change.
The goal is to have a clear, consistent understanding of what your program is designed to accomplish and whether it’s actually doing it.
The strongest proposals start long before the writing.
There are more tools than ever to help nonprofits with the mechanics of grant writing, including AI. Those tools can help organize information, refine language, and make the writing process more efficient. However, AI is only as strong as the information that organizations provide. If a program has not clearly defined its intended outcomes and measures of success, technology can’t fill those gaps. Strong grant proposals still depend on human expertise, strategic thinking, and a clear understanding of what change the organization hopes to create.
When a funder asks how you’ll measure impact, you shouldn’t have to scramble for an answer or take your best guess. You should already know what you aim to accomplish, what you’re measuring, and what success looks like.
The organizations that secure funding in today’s environment are often those that can clearly demonstrate where they are headed, how they plan to get there, and how they will measure success along the way. If you do that work before the application opens you’ll be in a much stronger position to succeed when the right funding opportunity comes along.
Ready to get started?
You don’t have to wait for your next grant application to start thinking more intentionally about outcomes. Download Hedges’ Logic Model Template or review this guide from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to begin mapping your program’s activities, outputs, outcomes, and intended impact.
About Kate:
Kate Tewanger is a Senior Consultant who has been with Hedges for a decade, bringing deep expertise in grant strategy, public health systems, and cross-sector collaboration. She helps nonprofit organizations and public entities secure competitive funding, design sustainable programs, and navigate complex funding environments. Kate is known for her analytical approach, strategic questions, and ability to bring clarity and focus to complex challenges.