The Theory of Change (TOC) helps us identify the impact we want to achieve as civil society organizations. It encompasses both the change we seek and how we will achieve it. Therefore, the TOC is our roadmap to our organizational goals.
What should a Theory of Change include?
The TOC needs a combination of elements to be successful. These elements are:
1. SMART Goals
These goals are the change we want to see. They are not our tasks but what we want to attain with them. Goals are the most essential part of our Theory of Change. Therefore, they are short and mid-term changes that, when we achieve them, will get us closer to our mission.
These goals should be well defined and be:
- Specific: they should leave no doubt about the change we want to see.
- Measurable: they should help us verify that we comply with them.
- Achievable and realistic: They should be ambitious but also consider the opportunities and challenges and our internal capacities.
The TOC contains our organizational mission, which is our raison d’être. It is useless to lay out an exceptional mission if we do not have the resources to do it or if there are too many challenges. In a previous blog entry, we explained what are the SMART goals, which you can read to learn more.
2. Expected outcomes
This element of the TOC will help us better identify the changes we want to attain. This clarity will help us achieve our goals. For example, if our goal is that government institutions publish how they spend the resources allocated to them, we should state in the expected outcomes:
- What concrete information do we want them to release?
- Where do we want them to be published?
- How do we want them to release the information?
3. Decision makers or agents of change
Civil society organizations are not necessarily directly responsible for the changes. For example, if we want to change a law, the legislative branch is responsible; as civil society, we influence the deputies and senators to make the legal changes we want.
If we seek to increase the number of women who demand their sexual or reproductive rights, we help them learn about them and how to assert and defend them. In the Theory of Change, we call the people we want to influence decision-makers or agents of change.
Our Theory of Change must identify them to better map out our advocacy strategies. Remember that the better we know them, the more strategic we will be and the better we can advocate.
4. Key activities
These are the actions we do daily, and they help us to reach our goals.
As you can see, the Theory of Change is nothing more than a roadmap that shows us the goal and a clear strategy for achieving it. It is a handy tool, which should be seen as something other than a straitjacket but as a guide that can be modified as we advance in our work or when conditions change.
The road to social change can seem daunting and uncertain without a clear path. At COMETA, we can help you define and follow it more confidently through the Theory of Change. With this map, your civil society organization can set its goals, project its expected outcomes, and define the agents of change it wants to influence.
Did you already know the elements of the Theory of Change? Does your organization have a Theory of Change? Tell us how it worked for you.
