Calculating the benefits
As well as identifying the outcomes or benefits about a project you also need to say how big they are. Clearly it is impossible to be certain about the precise benefits or outcomes from a project. But funders want you make as good an estimate as possible. There are three main ways of setting targets for the outcomes:
You can base your estimate on your own experience of doing similar things
You can base your estimate on the experience of other organisations that do similar things to what you are proposing
You can base your estimate on a set of assumptions that you decide upon because you have no experience of doing similar things and you are unaware of anyone else doing similar things that you can ask for some advice.
In every case make sure you record your assumptions so that if you ever have to answer questions from a funder about why you believe you will be able to achieve the benefits you have stated you can answer them.
Of course having set out the targets for the outcomes you have to monitor how well these are being achieved. Doing this as the project progresses means that you can make adjustments in the light of experience. This may involve going back to a funder to explain why you want to change the targets! See the information in Step 4.
