Compare methods

	Logic Model Analysis	Theory of Change Evaluation
Field	Public Policy	Public Policy
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2004	1995
Originator	Program evaluation field; popularised by United Way and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation	Carol Weiss; Connell & Kubisch; Funnell & Rogers
Type	Visual planning and evaluation framework	Theory-based program evaluation framework
Seminal source	W.K. Kellogg Foundation (2004). Logic Model Development Guide. Battle Creek, MI: W.K. Kellogg Foundation.	Weiss, C. H. (1995). Nothing as practical as good theory: Exploring theory-based evaluation for comprehensive community initiatives for children and families. In J. P. Connell, A. C. Kubisch, L. B. Schorr, & C. H. Weiss (Eds.), New Approaches to Evaluating Community Initiatives: Concepts, Methods, and Contexts (pp. 65–92). Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute. ISBN: 9780898431674
Aliases	Logic Model, Logical Framework Analysis, Program Logic, Logframe Analysis	Theory-Based Evaluation, ToC Evaluation, Theory-of-Change Approach, Outcomes Pathway Evaluation
Related	4	3
Summary	A logic model is a systematic, visual representation of how a program is understood to work: it lays out the logical relationships among the resources invested (inputs), the things done (activities), the products of those activities (outputs), and the changes expected to follow (outcomes and impact). Logic model analysis is the practice of building, examining and using these models to plan programs, guide implementation, and structure evaluation. Popularised by the United Way and codified in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's widely used 2004 Logic Model Development Guide, it has become the workhorse framework of program planning and evaluation.	Theory of change evaluation is a theory-based approach that evaluates a program against an explicit map of how and why it is expected to produce its intended outcomes. Rooted in Carol Weiss's work on theory-based evaluation and the Aspen Institute's community-initiatives projects of the 1990s, it requires evaluators to articulate the full causal pathway from activities through short- and intermediate-term outcomes to a long-term goal, make the underlying assumptions explicit, and then collect evidence to test whether each link in that chain holds in practice. The theory of change serves simultaneously as a planning tool and as the framework against which the program's progress and plausibility are judged.