Logic Model Template
A logic model is a one-page argument that your activities will produce the change you are claiming. Funders ask for it because it exposes whether a plan holds together, and the place it usually falls apart is the arrow between outputs and outcomes, where a proposal quietly assumes the hard part.
See the coursesEverything on this page is yours to copy and adapt. The courses cover the decisions behind it: what to charge, what to promise, and what to put in writing.
What yours needs to cover
- ✓ Inputs: the staff, money, partners and materials the work depends on
- ✓ Activities: what you will actually do, described so somebody could observe it
- ✓ Outputs: the countable results of those activities
- ✓ Outcomes: the change in people or conditions, split into short, medium and long term
- ✓ Assumptions and external factors, which is where an honest model says what it depends on
How to use it
- Start from the outcome you are claiming and work backwards, which is harder and more honest.
- Keep outputs and outcomes separate: a number of sessions delivered is not a change in anybody.
- Write down the assumption behind every arrow, then decide whether you could defend it.
- Check that every activity in the narrative appears here, and delete any that produce nothing.
What a logic model shows that a narrative can hide
Prose is forgiving. A project description can move from we will run workshops to participants will find stable employment in two sentences, and the reader may not notice the leap. A logic model lays the same reasoning out in columns, and the gap between workshops delivered and jobs held becomes visible as an empty space on the page. That is precisely why funders ask for one, and why it is worth building even when nobody has asked.
Filling in the columns from right to left
Begin in the outcomes column, with the change you are asking the funder to pay for. Split it into short-term outcomes, usually knowledge or skill gained within the project period, medium-term outcomes such as changed behavior, and long-term outcomes that the project contributes to but cannot achieve alone. Be honest about which of those you will actually measure.
Then move left to outputs, the countable products of your work, such as 24 workshops delivered or 80 people enrolled. Outputs prove you did what you said, and outcomes prove it mattered. Next list the activities that produce those outputs, described as things a visitor could observe, and finally the inputs, the staff time, funding, partners, space and materials the activities consume.
The last column most templates leave out is assumptions. Every arrow in the model rests on one. If job-readiness workshops lead to employment, you are assuming local employers are hiring and that participants can get to interviews. Writing those assumptions down lets you either address them in the plan or state them plainly as external factors.
Keeping the model and the proposal in step
The logic model should match the objectives, the evaluation plan and the budget exactly. Every outcome needs an indicator in the evaluation, and every activity needs a cost in the budget. Unit 6 of the Professional course builds a logic model and an evaluation plan from the same worked project, so you can see how the three documents lock together.
A filled-in example
| Inputs | One full-time trainer, a donated training room, $60,000 in grant funds, three employer partners |
|---|---|
| Activities | A six-week job-readiness course covering applications, interviews and workplace expectations |
| Outputs | Four cohorts of 20 people, so 80 enrolled and 24 course sessions delivered |
| Short-term outcome | 70% of participants complete a resume and a mock interview rated ready by an employer partner |
| Medium-term outcome | 40% of completers are employed 90 days after finishing |
| Long-term outcome | Reduced long-term unemployment in the neighborhood, to which the program contributes |
| Key assumption | Employer partners continue to hire entry-level staff at their current rate |
Mistakes to avoid
- Listing outputs as outcomes. Eighty people trained is an output. Seventy percent of them able to do something they could not do before is an outcome. Keep the two in separate columns.
- Claiming a long-term outcome as your own. A single program rarely moves a community statistic by itself. Say that you contribute to the long-term outcome and measure the shorter-term ones you control.
- Adding activities that lead nowhere. If an activity connects to no output or outcome, either it is not needed or the model is missing a line. Resolve it before the reviewer asks.
Logic Model Template FAQs
What is the difference between an output and an outcome?
An output is what your activity produced, such as forty workshops delivered to three hundred people. An outcome is what changed as a result, such as a measured increase in the skill those workshops taught. Funders read the two very differently.
Does every proposal need a logic model?
No, but many funders either require one or ask for the same reasoning inside the project description. Building one is useful even when it is not requested, because it finds the weak link before a reviewer does.
What is a theory of change?
A theory of change explains why the activities are expected to work, usually with more narrative and more attention to assumptions. A logic model is the compact, tabular relative of it, and some funders use the terms loosely.
More grant writing templates
Get every template, plus the training
Ten documents, one course that covers the thinking behind all of them, from the first quote to the contract you hand a commercial client.
Choose your course