Did our funding really make a difference? This is the most challenging question facing funders. The plethora of resources and opinions about evaluation, outcomes and impact often makes the response to this question more complex than it needs to be. Yes, measuring impact is difficult. Knowing whether a specific intervention (or an entire program) led to certain outcomes cannot usually be done through a linear thinking process. But there are many ways to manage the process of thinking about and assessing impact. It starts by structuring a program so that all its components are clear: the desired outcome, the motivating conditions/assumptions, the funding strategy, and the measures of effect and impact (short and long term). Such a framework - often called a logic model - can help assess progress against some benchmarks and helps clarify what is within or outside of a program's sphere of influence. Much of our work in the area of reviewing a program and its impact starts with a logic model or some other tool that helps frame the questions that the review/evaluation will address.
The Foundation's interest in protecting fresh water resources for future generations of Canadians led to its support of POWI, funded to undertake work specifically related to transboundary water issues, over a six-year period. The Foundation board requested an evaluation to help assess POWI's contribution towards water use and diversion particularly with respect to the Canada-United States boundary. Our work involved reviewing the grant-related materials and documents and stakeholder interviews with internal and external Canadian/US stakeholders. We were able to identify clear impact on trans-boundary issues that helped strengthen Canada's sovereignty over trans-boundary water, and that was attributable to POWI's efforts. The results suggested that significant impact had been achieved as a result of the Foundation's funding of POWI's work in this area and that the results would not been achieved without Foundation support.