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Designing Effective Programs:

– Introduction to Program Design Steps– Organizational Strategic Planning– Approaches and Models– Evaluation, scheduling, cost and assessing

impact– Key elements– Strategies for Attracting Support and Funding

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Introduction:

WHAT IS PROGRAM DESIGN?

Definition: A prearranged set of activities designed to achieve a stated set of goals and objectives.

in other words…

It’s the process by which you decide what you want to do, how you plan to do it and how you plan on measuring your results.

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The steps of program design generally fit into three main categories:

Program Design:

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Examples of different program design tools and uses

Program Design: (cont.)

Phase I:

• Identifying the problem and assessing need

– Covered in Day 1

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Phase II: Strategic Planning

To be a successful and effective, an organization must have a clearly defined and well-communicated vision, mission,

objective, strategy and action plan.

CRITICAL IN ATTRACTING FUNDING AND SUPPORT

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Phase II: Strategic Planning (cont.)

One example of a simple, flexible and adaptive strategic planning tool is:

Vision

Mission

Objectives

Strategies

Action Plan

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Phase II: Logic Models

By plotting things out in if-then relationship, we are able to identify gaps, clarify assumptions and gain clear understanding of how process will work.

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Phase II: Logic Models (cont.)

Benefits to using a Logic Model:• Provides clear guidance and an established structure for program implementers• Enhances teamwork• Guides and helps focus work – helps keep us from over-promisinghelps keep us from over-promising• Helps identify appropriate evaluation questions• Provides coherence across complex tasks and diverse environments• Identifies gaps in logic and uncertain assumptions• Guides prioritization and allocation of resources• Provides a clear and concise summary of the program to communicate to internal and external stakeholders

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Phase II: Logic Models and Evaluation

A Logic Model is not an evaluation model or tool – but you can use it to help you focus on the evaluation criteria that you’ll need to establish to be able to report accurate results and measure impact.

Provides a program description that can guide the evaluation process– Helps match evaluation methods to the program– Helps identify the important evaluation criteria (what,

where and when to measure)– Helps identify the key information

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Phase II: Results Based Framework

– Relies on carefully selected indicators to determine intermediate results and achievement of objectives

– Defines cause and effect linkages between intermediate results and objectives

– Sets expectations clearly

– Provides opportunities to adjust implementation strategy mid-program

– Like the logic model, it can be applied to almost anything, but is best utilized in when applied to projects in a broader context of meeting an organizational or government strategic objective.

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Phase II: Results Based Framework

Agency Objective

Strategic Objective

Intermediate Result Level 2

Intermediate Result Level 1

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Phase II: Effectiveness Based Approach

– Focus on assessing impact

– Based on the concept that continual evaluation and adaptation = continual improvement

– Identifies evaluation data required to assess impact in the planning stage

– Applicable to programs providing direct services

– Not useful for programs focused solely on:• Advocacy

• Lobbying

• Fundraising

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Phase II: Scheduling

• Develop a detailed work plan– Plans activities out at the start– Provides a guide for resource allocation

• Staff• Materials• Vehicles• Equipment

– Must match the detailed budget

Phase III: Measuring Costs

• Budget– Develop a realistic and comprehensive detailed

budget– Include a short, thorough narrative to explain

the numbers in the budget– If you include an indirect rate, be able to

provide documentation to support it (audit)– Must match the work plan and address all

activities– If you include cost share or matching, explain!

Phase III: Evaluating Impact

• Measure new data against data collected at the start of the project to determine intermediate or final impact

– Accuracy is very important

– Collection methods must be consistent

– Track via a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

• Set REALISTIC targets

Phase III: Addressing Quality and Sustainability

• Build in a focus on Quality and Sustainability in every step of your design.

• Every possible opportunity to secure local funding or support for the program should be explored, from beginning to end.

• Quality must be stressed as well – every chance to improve quality, from services to data collection to reporting of results, should be taken.

Key Elements• Documentation of the results of the 3

Phases will serve as the basis for requests for support or funding.

– If you do a thorough job planning the program, writing a proposal (for funding or support) will be fairly easy.

– All requests for support should be comprehensive, well-written and tailored to a specific audience

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Key Elements (cont.)

Well designed programs factor in:• Organizational Capacity and Mission• Existing Management Systems• Expertise and Experience (Past Performance)• Monitoring and Evaluation Plans• Work plans (Schedules)• Budget/Cost Analysis (Detailed and Complete)• A focus on Community Buy-In, Quality and

Sustainability throughout

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Key Elements (cont.)

What makes a good proposal?• Key personnel are known and respected by the donor• Price is reasonable and competitive• Substance is prepared by the technical experts who will

implement and manage the program• Have personal contact with the donor (if possible) and

know what they need.• Responsiveness to the RFP!• Proposal is innovative, readable and well organized.• Proposal does not argue against the donor’s priorities• Proposal demonstrates it was given original attention (not

boilerplate language)• Good subcontractors to fill gaps and round out the team

Strategies for Attracting Support and Funding

• It depends…a lot of variables impact what types of funding an organization should seek. Among them:– Strength of Financial Management Systems– Past Performance and Experience– Expertise and Staff– Relationship with the Community– Size of the organization– Size of the targeted population– Capacity

Strategies… (cont.)

Think Long Term

• Create a Funding Plan– Details how much it costs to run the current and

anticipated programs over the coming years. Map it out and go after funding that fits into your plan.

• Approach one-time grants with an eye toward sustainability by securing local funding (municipal, through charging for services, etc.) to continue services after the grant ends.

Strategies…(cont.)

Think strategically

• Partner

• Establish Networks and Relationships– Regionally and Nationally

• Know your audience– RFPs, Unsolicited Proposals, Community Support,

etc.

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Program Design

Discussion

and

Questions