Whether you are awarded a Micro Fund or Vision Fund grant or loan, we’ll be asking you to report back to us on what happened as a result.

We understand that things change and don’t always go to plan. Sometimes they are better than you could ever have dreamed, and sometimes they go completely pear shaped! Don’t worry. We just ask you to keep in touch. There is useful learning no matter what.

On these pages, you’ll find lots of information to help you to monitor and evaluate your project and provide us with the information we need.

You can also find out how we at the Community Fund CIC are doing – we monitor our own performance too. We have commissioned independent consultants Wavehill to help us with this over the next few years. They will be working with us to evaluate:

a. The impact and outcomes of projects that have been supported by the Community Fund
b. Delivery of the Community Vision set out in the Fund Prospectus
c. The Community Fund CIC’s own working practices and effectiveness – how well we are doing our job

Jargon Buster:

• Monitoring: This process often involves numbers and is an ongoing process involving the continuous and regular collection of key information about a project
• Inputs: The investment being made, needed to make the project happen, staff, budget, volunteers, etc.
• Outputs: products, services or facilities that result from a project’s activities
• Outcomes (sometimes referred to as ‘results’): the difference you make – changes, benefits, learning or other effects that result from what the project or organisation makes, offers or provides
• Impact: broader or longer-term effects of a project’s or organisation’s outputs, outcomes and activities.