Greater London Authority: Theory of Change Case Study
Greater London Authority
The Greater London Authority is the regional governance body for London and is responsible for delivering a range of services across the city. It is led by the Mayor of London.
To develop a guiding Theory of Change for Phase 1 of the ‘Sport Unites’ Community Sport Investment Programme and the ‘Major Events Engagement Fund’ (MEEF). Sport Unites is the Mayor of London’s flagship community sports programme designed to support the long-term vision to make London the most active and socially integrated city in the world. MEEF is designed to ensure the legacy of major events benefits communities and grassroots sport.
To work with key stakeholders to co-create an over-arching theory of change for the Mayor of London’s Sport Unites and MEEF investment programmes.
Working with identified stakeholders, existing grantees, and the Mayor of London’s Community Sport team, inFocus designed a Theory of Change for Sport Unites that encompassed all its various funds and themes. Six outcome pathways were designed: tackling inactivity; supporting mental health and wellbeing; encouraging social mixing and decreasing social isolation; addressing serious youth violence; building the capacity of the workforce; and strengthen the community sport sector’s systems and infrastructure. Each pathway had a series of outcomes with associated indicators and suggested questions. The outcomes pathways served as a basket or menu with the ToC Workbook and indicator toolkits developed by inFocus allowing grantees to create their own miniature theory of change for their funded work and to help guide them in the design of their monitoring and data collection.
Developing an overarching theory of change with outcome pathways serving as ‘menus’ that could be used by multiple organisations proved successful. The outcomes pathways allowed grantees to mix and match outcomes to create a true representation of the intention of the work they were doing and incorporate their own where necessary. Grantees with limited knowledge and experience of impact measurement or with limited resources could use the ToC as a guide to design their data collection, allowing them to contribute meaningful data to the wider evaluation.
Organisations with their own theory of change in place were able to align the outcomes with their own and utilise their existing data collection methods to limit any additional burden. The result was most grantees were able to report using compatible or identical metrics that informed the wider evaluation of the impact of the two investment programmes. A thematic case study was developed for each of the outcome pathways. It also prompted plans for the MEEF programme to be subsumed within Sport Unites in the future as the two overarching ToC’s were closely aligned.
Get email updates about our latest news, courses, studies and webinars
inFocus is a social impact consultancy firm that support partners to improve lives and transform communities worldwide.
We have designed and implemented social impact measurement and grant management solutions for funders, policy makers and frontline agencies in over 40 countries across the globe.
inFocus Consulting Ltd, Omega House,
6 Buckingham Place, Bellfield Road West
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
HP13 5HW
Over the last 15 years, inFocus has also designed a wide range of different customised training courses for clients around the world. The courses are specifically tailored to the needs of your organisation and attendees in the training, building on the extensive inFocus resources.
Our custom training has covered a range of areas, including inFocus core areas of expertise in impact measurement and management
(IMM), theory of change and strategic planning. We have also developed training on more specific topics, such as the launch of new grant schemes for funders.
Our options for custom training include:
inFocus conducts independent, external evaluations to facilitate learning and support accountability.
We have conducted evaluations of high complexity projects, programmes and organisations for delivery agencies, funders, policymakers and networks, both in the Sport for Development and Peace and wider international development sector. We utilise a range of approaches including: Summative; Theory Based; Process; Developmental; Impact; and Participatory.
inFocus executes specific applied research projects on various topics such as Sport for Development, social impact measurement, and strategies for scaling impact. Our findings are designed to be implementable and timely.
Our team is comprised of experienced practitioners who are trained to bridge the gap between traditional research and practical evaluation. We provide a range of different evaluation approaches and methodologies suited to either individual projects or complex funding programmes. We systematically explore and document what is working and highlight areas to for further improvement to help funders explore overall impact strategies.
inFocus helps delivery agencies, funders and networks use their data effectively to report back to stakeholders and utilise data as a tool for development and growth. We work with organisations to do this by giving support in key areas, based upon their identified and priority needs:
inFocus works with philanthropic organisations that provide grants and support to third party organisations delivering programmes or initiatives. Funders include charities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community groups, governmental or inter-governmental agencies and private sector companies. Our consultancy services are specifically designed to address some of the key challenges that funders face, whether that is:
Theory of Change is a technique that helps you to map out and explore how your activities lead to social change, and your underlying beliefs or assumptions. It is a powerful tool for helping to:
‘A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world.’
Strategy is about asking yourself vital questions concerning What are you trying to achieve? What is the external situation and how can we address it? Are we effective? How can we convince others of this?
inFocus helps organisations to focus on their most critical issues and identify high leverage directions that allow the organisation to renew and reinvent itself, preserving its vitality and its competitive edge.
We’ve worked with non-profits and charities all around the world to scale up, scale out and scale together for more sustainable impact:
The Tools and Resources for Impact Measurement and Management section of our website is dedicated to providing a comprehensive suite of resources that can be downloaded and put to practical use by our Impact Community.
The resources are all aligned to our IMM courses, particularly the IMM Builder course, which provides step by step guidance on how they can be developed and adapted to your own context, and put firmly into practice.
The Tools and Resources are categorised and cover the following IMM areas:
PLEASE NOTE: This section to our website is coming soon.
InFocus is committed to sharing learning and best-practice within the development and humanitarian sectors.
We regularly run (free to join) public webinars (online workshops) on different topics to share best-practice and generate critical debates between experts and practitioners.
The 90-minute webinars cover a range of topics, including most recently:
Click on the ‘Impact Community’ section above to find out how to become a member and receive regular updates on our public training.
Register for Webinars
When running a programme, project or activity within a community, it is critical for organisations to understand what IS working and what ISN’T and how to more effectively generate social and environmental impact. inFocus set up and run online learning communities around the world that bring organisations together to discuss and draw out best practice around a particular topic.
Typically, for inFocus a learning community includes the following elements:
Read about our approach to Peer-to-Peer Learning Communities here.
When running a programme, project or activity within a community, it is critical for organisations to understand what IS working and what ISN’T and how to more effectively generate social and environmental impact. inFocus set up and run online learning communities around the world that bring organisations together to discuss and draw out best practice around a particular topic.
Typically, for inFocus a learning community includes the following elements:
Read about our approach to Peer-to-Peer Learning Communities here.
Completing all three of the eLearning courses: IMM: Introduction, IMM: Foundation and IMM Builder will also open up ongoing professional development opportunities in IMM with free access to bi-monthly IMM webinars run by inFocus experts.
The 2-hour webinars will provide an opportunity to:
Theory of Change is a technique that helps you to map out and explore how your activities lead to social change, and your underlying beliefs or assumptions. It is a powerful tool for helping to:
Completing all three of the eLearning courses: IMM: Introduction, IMM: Foundation and IMM Builder will also open up ongoing professional development opportunities in IMM with free access to bi-monthly IMM webinars run by inFocus experts.
The 2-hour webinars will provide an opportunity to:
The Tools and Resources for Impact Measurement and Management section of our website is dedicated to providing a comprehensive suite of resources that can be downloaded and put to practical use by our Impact Community.
The resources are all aligned to our IMM courses, particularly the IMM Builder course, which provides step by step guidance on how they can be developed and adapted to your own context, and put firmly into practice.
The Tools and Resources are categorised and cover the following IMM areas:
PLEASE NOTE: This section to our website is coming soon!
inFocus conducts independent, external evaluations to facilitate learning and support accountability.
We have conducted evaluations of high complexity projects, programmes and organisations for delivery agencies, funders, policymakers and networks, both in the Sport for Development and Peace and wider international development sector. We utilise a range of approaches including: Summative; Theory Based; Process; Developmental; Impact; and Participatory.
inFocus executes specific applied research projects on various topics such as Sport for Development, social impact measurement, and strategies for scaling impact. Our findings are designed to be implementable and timely.
Our team is comprised of experienced practitioners who are trained to bridge the gap between traditional research and practical evaluation. We provide a range of different evaluation approaches and methodologies suited to either individual projects or complex funding programmes. We systematically explore and document what is working and highlight areas to for further improvement to help funders explore overall impact strategies.
inFocus helps delivery agencies, funders and networks use their data effectively to report back to stakeholders and utilise data as a tool for development and growth. We work with organisations to do this by giving support in key areas, based upon their identified and priority needs:
InFocus is committed to sharing learning and best-practice within the development and humanitarian sectors.
We regularly run (free to join) public webinars (online workshops) on different topics to share best-practice and generate critical debates between experts and practitioners.
Click on the ‘Impact Community’ section above to find out how to become a member and receive regular updates on our public training.
An inFocus Learning Community brings together ‘like-minded’ organisations to exchange knowledge, share methods and results and map out both commonalities and differences in approaches.
Our learning webinars and live workshops bring together actors and organisations that work directly with beneficiaries, with evaluation and research experts specialising in the focal area. These are dedicated to particular thematic areas (e.g. gender equality, or disability) and can have a global, regional or local geographic focus, sometimes linked to a specific funder or network. In our Learning Community webinars and workshops, common challenges and solutions are shared, common indicators, outcomes and tools discussed and defined, with best practices to achieve these outcomes identified and documented.
We pride ourselves upon being able to then translate insights and learning into highly accessible and engaging materials, taking advantage of multi-media capabilities and tools, such as eLearning modules, online forums, meetings and webinars to disseminate knowledge across the field.
inFocus works with philanthropic organisations that provide grants and support to third party organisations delivering programmes or initiatives. Funders include charities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community groups, governmental or inter-governmental agencies and private sector companies. Our consultancy services are specifically designed to address some of the key challenges that funders face, whether that is:
‘A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world.’
Strategy is about asking yourself vital questions concerning What are you trying to achieve? What is the external situation and how can we address it? Are we effective? How can we convince others of this?
inFocus helps organisations to focus on their most critical issues and identify high leverage directions that allow the organisation to renew and reinvent itself, preserving its vitality and its competitive edge.
We’ve worked with non-profits and charities all around the world to scale up, scale out and scale together for more sustainable impact:
InFocus is committed to sharing learning and best-practice within the development and humanitarian sectors.
We regularly run (free to join) public webinars (online workshops) on different topics to share best-practice and generate critical debates between experts and practitioners.
Click on the ‘Impact Community’ section above to find out how to become a member and receive regular updates on our public training.
Over the last 15 years, inFocus has also designed a wide range of different customised training courses for clients around the world. The courses are specifically tailored to the needs of your organisation and attendees in the training, building on the extensive inFocus resources.
Our custom training has covered a range of areas, including inFocus
core areas of expertise in impact measurement and management
(IMM), theory of change and strategic planning. We have also
developed training on more specific topics, such as the launch of new
grant schemes for funders.
Our options for custom training include:
Please feel free to get in touch to discuss your specific requirements for custom trainings.
