First up, what do we mean by Outcome Tracking?
Essentially: asking someone the same question at different times. Some things are annoying if you keep asking them – your date of birth, for example, doesn’t change. But when something changes, it can be useful to ask the same question.
The exact questions will vary – many Lamplight customers use tools like Outcome Stars, or wellbeing measures like CORE, or some of the dozens of other frameworks. What they have in common though is that they all have a series of questions or statements that someone is asked to score, often between 1 and 10.
For example:
“Since accessing our service, how confident do you feel about managing your situation?” 1 being Less Confident and 10 being Much More Confident
Over time, the client and supporting organisation hope that these numbers will indicate that things are getting better.
Charities exist to make change
The phrase in law is ‘public benefit’ – making the world a slightly better place. Outcome Tracking Tools are one of the ways we can see that. They aren’t the only approach, but they are a very common one.
One criticism is that they only show correlation, not causation. Changes observed may have been caused by all sorts of things, not the work of the charity – so you can’t really use the data to claim that a particular non-profit has helped. Maybe they’ve just measured change caused by broader economic factors, for example.
A theory of change can put things in context and provide a sensible basis to make claims about impact. A Theory of Change links action to observed change: providing advice about benefit entitlements leads to increased income, for example. So if you know that you’ve helped 20 people understand their entitlements, and see their income increase by a corresponding amount, it’s reasonable to claim some connection.
Theories of Change can also draw on other more academically rigorous research without having to re-do it. We don’t have to prove general relativity to use and rely on our SatNav – someone else has done that for us, and we can take advantage of it to find our way. If someone else has done the research to demonstrate that youth clubs increase wellbeing, say, we can rely on that in our youth club without having to prove it again.
So understanding the activities of a charity, and looking at impact measured using Outcome Tracking tools, connected by a sensible Theory of Change.
It’s good for us to reflect on where we’ve come
We all benefit from taking a moment now and again to review what’s happened. Life can easily just keep trundling on and there’s plenty of evidence that actively taking stock helps us to appreciate the good things that have happened and improve our wellbeing.
Many charities find that Outcome Tracking Tools are a valuable way to enable this, especially if you record it in such a way that the client can see their previous responses at some point. This can be a big advantage of using a charity CRM or similar system over paper forms. Visual representations can also help to bring alive what has happened. As part of a conversation this journey can then become a valuable intervention in itself.
It’s like walking uphill through woods. You keep walking, one foot after the other, only seeing the track winding ever upwards and onwards. Eventually you pause, stretch, and look around. The view is breath-taking; and you realise just how far you’ve come. You feel exhilarated. The rest of the climb seems so much more doable now.
Opens discussion for the future
It’s not always onwards and upwards though. Sometimes we get stuck in a situation, sometimes things get worse. It’s just as important to recognise this too if we do want to change them. Outcomes Tracking Tools can help us identify this. Naming the problem is often the first step to change, and so again working through these as part of the support work of the charity is a benefit in itself.
Good outcome tracking isn’t just about proving impact—it’s about understanding it. A well-designed charity CRM that supports outcome tracking helps organisations reflect, learn, and improve. It enables you to have deeper, more meaningful conversations with the people you support, track change over time, and link that change clearly back to the work you do. When combined with a strong Theory of Change, outcome data becomes a powerful tool for accountability, learning, and storytelling. Ultimately, it helps charities stay focused on what matters most: making a real difference in people’s lives.
Photo by bnenin
