Hopeful Towns: BID-BUILDER

8. Get things in place to evaluate and demonstrate value

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The final element is about really thinking through what you plan to do and how. In particular, it is essential that you articulate clearly up front how progress will be monitored and success will be measured.

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Make sure you spell out how the programme achieves value for money. Funders will always be looking at this; it can often be a separate criteria for them, and one which is weighted quite heavily. Your proposal must be robust and detailed on this front, looking at the 'business case' for the project and the justification for each decision you make.

 

Key steps here include:

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• Scoping the idea out, to check that the work is deliverable within the project timescale and using the funding being applied for

• Putting together a costed delivery plan, for exactly how you will do this - including questions like value for money

• Thinking clearly about ‘what success looks like’ at the outset, and about how you will monitor it

• Establishing key outputs (things you will do) and outcomes (things that will change), in preparation for writing an end of project report

 

These aspects are important because you will be asked to evaluate your project once it is finished, and because you will be expected to be clear about how you will do this from the outset.

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It can be easy to think about evaluation as a question of ‘crossing that bridge when you come to it’, or to be overly focused on getting a project ‘over the line’. But if you engage seriously with the question of evaluation then the proposal will be more likely to succeed in the first place.