Theory of Action and Theory of Change Resources

Theory of Change Guide – In Spanish!

We recently translated our guide for a three day workshop we are facilitating for members of  Lutheran World Services in Central America. We hope you find it useful, and please feel free to share! ToC Guía_AEC_Oct2017

Reflections on Social Learning & Communities of Practice (KM4Dev Convening, Seattle 2017)

I recently attended a KM4Dev convening in Seattle Washington. KM4Dev is an international “Community of Practice”  focused on knowledge management, sharing or more generally social learning for development. The workshop was facilitated by the extraordinary Nancy White  who brings years of wisdom (and fun!) to the deep work of collaboration and learning and thought leaders […]

Embedding Evaluative Thinking into Social Change Initiatives

Embedding Evaluative Thinking_Reflections & Recommendations Included are some of our reflections and recommendations drawn from the last five years of longer-term engagements with foundations and international NGOs interested in developing within and between organizations and communities. (These were largely taken from recommendations of final reports, so to some degree written for an internal audience). Also see our […]

Framework – Evaluating Social Justice Work

A visual we put together a number of years ago that illustrates some key concepts in theories of change for Social Justice work. We have found this to be helpful for understanding what to explore in evaluation projects, as well narrating the significance of findings in a context of longer-term change. Theories – Social Justice […]

Linking Theory with Action – An example

Background: We recently conducted a Theory of Action process with a capacity building organization, the Progressive Technology Project (PTP), which works with political organizing and social movement groups in the U.S. The group wanted to develop their Theory of Action, but also have a very focused discussion linking the process to decision-making over the next couple years. […]

Theory of Action/Theory of Change – Basic steps…

 When to use This process is best used at the beginning of a program or initiative or as an initial step in setting up an evaluation. It is a powerful tool to surface assumptions and support critical thinking and reflection  while also strengthening planning processes and sharpening strategies. It also provides a framework for monitoring […]

Theory of Action/Theory of Change- A few tips and lessons learned…

For a ToA to be more than just a map, the facilitator needs to be sure that the organization has the understanding and capacity to take on facilitation itself (for example by providing suggestions, a simple toolkit). The goal is for the   process of critical thinking to  happen independently of a facilitator, and for […]