IN THIS CHAPTER YOU'LL LEARN:
- Why logic models help you along all project routines.
- What constitutes a logic model.
- How you can derive a logic model.
Together with your passengers and crew, you’ve agreed on a destination for your sea journey. Now it’s time to settle on the best way to reach your project goal.
While you use sea charts and your experience as a sailor to guide you in your sea voyage, so-called logic models help you plan the project with impact in mind. Logic models thus guide you in finding the most promising and most feasible pathway to results.
Logic models exist under a variety of names. We make use of the most widely known logic model applicable to most projects.
Working with logic models offers several advantages:
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What are logic models?
Logic models have been used for project planning and evaluation since the 1970s. They place the planned project objectives, the resources necessary to reach the objectives, and the services offered by the project into a systematic relationship. They thus enable the project to be scrutinized on the basis of plausibility and feasibility. A logic model also allows you to check at any time whether your project is still on course.
The U.S. non-profit "Create your Dreams" is a helpful example of how to derive a logic model in practice.

- With the help of a logic model, you can review the project’s impact-oriented assumptions at any time: Can the proposal, in fact, be realized?
- Through the use of a logic model, you can work out detailed project objectives for each individual step. This kind of step-by-step goal system facilitates project management.
- The logic model will help you identify the appropriate indicators you’ll need for the impact analysis.
- Finally, a logic model helps with external communication and fundraising. Those who can establish a causal chain between their own work and the results achieved within the target group have an unbeatable argument to take to potential supporters.
In order to derive a logic model we recommend the Social Reporting Standard (SRS), which we will introduce later.
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Watch out for conceptual confusion!
Different kinds of impact-oriented outlining tools use different conceptual terms. On this website, we employ the widely used terms inputs, outputs, outcomes and impacts. The Social Reporting Standard, for example, uses a similar terminology.
Website: Social-impact-navigator.org SRS Inputs Resources Outputs Work performed Outcomes Results Impacts Results