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How to make your theory of change something a board or funder can actually follow
Most theories of change stop at the diagram. How to turn yours into a story a board or funder can follow, and why one person's journey can carry the whole model.
Most organisations that have a theory of change built it carefully: the diagram, the boxes, the arrows from activities to outcomes. Then it went into a strategy document and stayed there.
That's a waste. A theory of change is the clearest explanation you have of why your work makes a difference. Told well, it's also one of the most persuasive stories you can give a funder or a board.
This guide is for charity leaders and social impact teams who have a theory of change, or need one, and want it to do more work.
What a theory of change is
The Center for Theory of Change describes it as "a comprehensive description and illustration of how and why a desired change is expected to happen in a particular context".
In plain terms, it answers four questions:
What do we do?
What do we expect to happen as a result?
What are we assuming along the way?
What long-term change are we working towards?
The value is in the connections. Plenty of organisations can list what they do and what they hope for. A theory of change shows why one leads to the other.
Why most of them never leave the strategy document
The diagram makes sense to the people who built it. To anyone else it's a grid of boxes in small type.
So when a funder asks "how does your work lead to change?", most organisations reach for a list of outputs: sessions delivered, people trained, kits distributed. That answers what you did. It doesn't explain why it worked.
Ask for: a one-paragraph, plain-language version of your theory of change that someone outside the organisation could repeat.
Tell it as one person's journey
The most effective way I know to bring a theory of change to life is to follow one person through it.
At the Naz and Matt Foundation, we support LGBTQI+ people from religious backgrounds, many of whom are at risk of violence, isolation or forced marriage. We had outputs and some data. We knew that wasn't what would reach the funders we needed.
So we told one person's journey: how they found the courage to reach out, what happened when they did, and how their life looks now. We connected each stage of that story to a stage of our theory of change.
That story helped us win multi-year funding, and move from a team of volunteers to one with paid staff. We hadn't ticked every box. The story let a funder see our model working in one person's life.
How to turn your theory of change into a story
Write the plain-language version. One paragraph: what you do, what changes, and why.
Find the moment that matters most. Usually it's the point where someone decides to take the first step. That's where the story starts.
Follow one person through each stage. With their consent, map their experience against your model, box by box.
Be honest about the assumptions. Every theory of change rests on assumptions. Say which ones the story tests, and which you're still learning about.
Show it. Photographs, quotes and real details make the model concrete. Plan them alongside the story.
Ask for: one consented story mapped against your theory of change, stage by stage, ready to use in bids and board papers.
Where it earns its keep
Funding bids. Open with the plain-language version, then one person's journey through it. Assessors see that you've thought it through, and that it works in practice.
Board papers. Trustees can hold the organisation to account more easily when they can picture the model working.
Your own team. People can see how their part of the work connects to the bigger change.
Six questions to ask about your theory of change
Could someone outside the organisation explain it after reading it once?
Which assumptions does it rest on, and which are we least sure of?
Do we have one real person whose journey shows it working?
Where does the story show what we did, rather than only what we hoped?
Have we said what isn't working yet?
Do we use it in bids and reports, or only in the strategy?
Where to start this week
Take your theory of change and write the one-paragraph version. Read it to someone who doesn't work for you. If they can't repeat it back, keep simplifying until they can.
If you'd like help building a theory of change, or turning the one you have into a story for funders and boards, that's part of my storytelling consultancy. The Social Impact Storytelling Framework is free if you'd like to start on your own.
Questions people ask
What is a theory of change?
A description of how and why your work is expected to lead to the change you want, including the steps in between and the assumptions you're making.
Do small charities need a theory of change?
It helps any organisation that needs to explain why its work makes a difference. A small charity can start with a single paragraph.
How do you present a theory of change to funders?
In plain language first, then through one person's journey that shows each stage working. Keep the diagram for the appendix.
Matt Mahmood-Ogston is a London-based social impact storyteller and documentary photographer. He founded the Naz and Matt Foundation in 2014 and has led it for more than 12 years.
