I used to think life-changing work was enough. A funder taught me otherwise

When I first started my charity, I was all action. We were helping people in crisis. We were in the national press. We were turning up everywhere we could.

Then a potential funder asked me a simple question.

I froze. I said something like: “We’re speaking to loads of people who need help, and we’re doing lots of press.”

She asked again, more slowly. “But what are the outcomes?”

That conversation changed how I’ve worked ever since. This post is for charity leaders who are busy doing good work and haven’t yet found the words, or the evidence, to show what it changes.

Doing the work and showing the change

Most people who lead charities and social impact teams are too busy doing the work to talk about the change it makes. That’s understandable. But it has a cost.

The more you talk about what you’re doing, and the less about what’s changing, the more invisible your real impact becomes. Funders, partners and policymakers invest in change, so that’s what they need to see.

Outputs and outcomes

• Outputs are what you do: workshops delivered, advice sessions held, posts published.

• Outcomes are what changed as a result: a young person back in touch with their family, a school with less bullying, a policymaker asking for your view.

Both matter. Only one feeds people.

Ask for: every report and bid to state at least one outcome for each major output, with how you know it happened.

Why funders ask

It isn’t that they don’t value hard work. Their own boards and donors are asking them the same questions they ask you:

• What changed?

• Why does it matter?

• How do we know?

If you can’t answer those, your case weakens, however strong your mission.

How outcomes become a story

A list of outcomes is still a list. What makes it land is showing one of them happening in someone’s life, with their consent, and then showing the pattern. That’s what turns a reader into a supporter.

A theory of change helps you connect the two: what you put in, what you do, what that produces, what changes, and the bigger difference it makes over time. I’ve written about how to make one usable in how to make your theory of change something a board or funder can follow.

What I did next

That funder conversation stayed with me. I started listening harder. I captured stories as they happened. I measured what I could. And over time I built the method that became The Social Impact Storytelling Framework, so other leaders wouldn’t be caught out the way I was.

Now when a funder asks about outcomes, I can show them: the stories, the evidence and the people who can speak for themselves.

Six questions to ask before your next funding conversation

1. What are our three most important outcomes?

2. How do we know each one happened?

3. Which person’s story shows each outcome, with consent?

4. What’s the bigger change those outcomes contribute to?

5. What hasn’t changed yet?

6. Could a funder repeat our answer to their own board?

Where to start this week

Take your last report. Highlight every output in one colour and every outcome in another. If the first colour wins by a long way, pick one output and write down what changed because of it, and how you know.

If you’d like your team confident talking about outcomes, not just activity, that’s part of my social impact storytelling workshops.

Questions people ask

What’s the difference between outputs and outcomes?

Outputs are what you deliver. Outcomes are what changes because of it, for people, communities or systems.

How do small charities measure outcomes without big budgets?

Start small: ask people what’s changed for them, note it consistently, and capture a few stories in depth. A simple, honest record is better than none.

Why do funders focus on outcomes?

Because they have to show their own boards and donors what their money changed. Clear outcomes make that easy for them.