The proposal won. Now somebody has to run what it promised.
What a program actually is before it becomes a budget line — the population, the theory of change, the service model, objectives that can be tested, and an evaluation designed at the same time as the program rather than bolted on when a funder asks.
Does this sound like your last program launch?
“The description that won the funding is the only design document, and it was written to persuade rather than to be operated.
“Objectives are stated as activities — provide services to a number of families — so there is no way to fall short, and therefore no way to learn anything.
“Nobody can state the theory: what the program does, why that should produce the change, and what would have to be true for it to work.
“Two staff describe the service model differently, because dosage, duration, caseload ratio, and the meaning of completion were never written down.
“Evaluation was designed after launch, so the baseline was never collected and the comparison is gone.
“A funder asks for outcomes and the honest answer is that the data being collected cannot support the claim.
“The program is running, and nobody can say what result would mean it should change or stop.
The design underneath the program
- A written program design: the population and eligibility, the need addressed, the theory of change stated as a chain, and the assumption each link depends on.
- A logic model connecting inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact — built so every outcome traces back to an activity that could plausibly produce it, and every activity is one your organization can actually staff.
- Goals and SMARTER objectives — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, evaluated and revised — with the evaluation point and the revision trigger written into the objective rather than left to good intentions.
- A service model specification: dosage, duration, frequency, caseload ratio, staffing and qualification requirements, the referral and eligibility pathway, and the definitions of completion, exit, and non-completion.
- An implementation-capacity check run before launch: whether this organization can staff, supervise, document, and evidence what is being designed — and what has to be built first where it cannot.
- An evaluation design built alongside the program: indicators, baseline, collection points, who collects, and an honest statement of what the design can and cannot demonstrate.
- A data-capture and documentation design, so that running the program produces the evaluation data as a by-product of the work rather than as extra work.
- A regulatory and contract pathway review: which approvals, licenses, or contract amendments the program requires before it can lawfully begin.
- A pilot and revision schedule with a stated revision point, so the first cohort improves the design rather than merely surviving it.
- A discontinuation standard: what result, sustained over what period, would mean this program should change or stop.
The deliverables
Program design document · logic model · goals and SMARTER objectives with revision triggers · service model specification · implementation-capacity check · evaluation design and measurement plan · data-capture and documentation design · regulatory and contract pathway review · pilot and revision schedule · discontinuation standard.
What you can run afterward
Your program staff describe the model the same way, because it is written down. Your evaluation produces its data from the work rather than beside it. When a funder asks what the program does and how you know it works, the answer comes out of a document your own team wrote — and the next program is designed by your people, using the same method.
Where the line is
We design programs with your staff. We do not deliver them. We provide no direct service to clients or families, and we do not become the program's staff or its supervisor. Where a funder or regulator requires an independent evaluator, we build the design and the data capture and then step back, so that an independent evaluator can do their work without us in it.
Through The Assessment and Implementation Coaching, and through The Academy where the method is taught to the staff who will use it on the next program. Commonly a focused sprint of eight to fourteen weeks, most often before a program launches or when an existing one is being redesigned.