Introduction

This Tip Sheet is intended to assist grant applicants in completing the OTF Workplan (MS Word 71 kb).

This form is mandatory and must be used by applicants who  are filling out the standard grant application. The results and activities that you identify in your standard grant application are used as benchmarks for you to measure the progress and successes of your initiative.

Purpose and structure of the Workplan

The information that you record on your Workplan provides the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) with the details of what your initiative will achieve, the work involved in your achieving it and how you will measure the success of your initiative. It is an opportunity for you to demonstrate the planning you have put into the initiative and your understanding of how the activities benefit the community.

OTF funds a variety of initiatives, from very simple equipment purchases to complex projects that benefit communities across the province. The level of detail you include in your workplan should be appropriate for the level of complexity of your initiative. There are special instructions at the bottom of the page for equipment, operating, and renovations and repair requests. If, for example, you were applying for a new compressor to make better ice at the rink, you would list the purchase of equipment and the training for staff and volunteers under Activities.

The logic of the workplan flows from the general to the specific, from the measurable results you hope to achieve, the activities that will achieve those results and to how you will measure if you achieved what you set out to do.

Your goal should align with the overall mission of your organization.

Keep your goal very broad. For example, if you’re applying for a capital grant to purchase and install new ice-making equipment for your curling rink in order to maintain a good ice surface, tell us why: to keep curling fun, safe and/or competitive. Or, if you’re applying for a project grant to produce resource materials to support program delivery, specify the benefit of the brochures and the program to the community. Similarly, if your request is for operating support, specify which areas of your operation the funding would support and why it would benefit your community to have this additional support now.

Expected Results

Your workplan should include a list of concrete and measurable deliverables or outcomes that your organization expects to achieve during each year or by the end of your initiative. How will your initiative contribute to the quality of life in your community? It may seem obvious to you but please tell us. Whether you want to develop workshops or repair a roof: what will this initiative do for the community?

Your results should be an itemized list of what you hope to accomplish and be achieved though the activities you identify in the Activities column. Your results should identify the specific changes you anticipate will occur in your community or organization because of this initiative. Results should be achievable and measurable, and can be quantitative and qualitative.

Anticipated changes or results may be social, economic, community-wide or individual. Key features of anticipated results and examples are outlined below.

Achievable

Make sure that your results or outcomes are appropriate to the size and length of your initiative, its goal and activities and your organization’s resources and expertise. Results should also have clear links to the overall goal of the project and its activities. For example, if you’re applying for a capital grant to purchase and install a new ice-making machine for your rink, one result might be to increase the number of province-wide tournaments held at the rink to augment tourism in the area. Or, if you’re applying for a project grant to produce resource materials, one result might be to expand the reach of your program or to help program participants develop a certain skill.

A more complex project may cover a broader range of outcomes, including project reach, organizational results, community or individual results and economic results.

Qualitative and quantitative

Results can measure qualitative or quantitative changes. Don’t stop at numbers and percentages. Include qualitative results that provide a more in-depth perspective on the impact of your grant. For example: the results of interviews with seniors describing how the capital renovations to a community hall mean they are now able to see friends weekly and feel more like a part of the community, a summary of letters written by volunteers who describe how their experience working with newcomers has broadened their appreciation and understanding of different cultures, a summary of a discussion group with kids who participated in a community mural project who say being part of the project made them feel important and more confident about themselves.

In most cases, you should provide both measures.

Measurable results

When deciding how to measure results, here are a few things to think about:

For more information, please see "Measuring Results."

Activities

Once you have identified the results that you expect to achieve, the next step in the planning process requires you to develop your activities. These are the main steps, for example, researching, planning, or developing, that will help your organization achieve the desired results. Each activity should be tied to an expected result. Each result should have at least one activity associated with it. Remember also that your expected results and activities should have a coherent link to your organizational mission and your goal.

When listing your activities on the form, put them in chronological order and explain when they will be done and how long each will take.

For example, if the results include putting a new roof on your curling rink, the workplan should include obtaining a building permit from the local municipal authorities as an activity.

Performance Indicators

The last column asks you to identify how you will know if your initiative has achieved the results you had hoped it would. How will you evaluate the results of your activities?

In this column you should identify the indicators of success: how you will know if your activities achieved the desired results and how you will measure them. The indicators of success in your evaluation plan should be connected to the measurable results you identified in the first column. If one expected result were to increase participation in a program, an increased number of participants would indicate success. You will measure that through attendance logs.

This form is designed for straightforward evaluations of simple initiatives. If you have a complex project, you may want to develop a more elaborate evaluation plan. More information about evaluation is available in the Reporting Materials section of the OTF website (under Grantee Information).

Developing an evaluation plan

Although an evaluation may not actually be undertaken until midway through an initiative or at its completion, planning for an evaluation is done prior to the start of the initiative. Developing the plan prior to the beginning of the initiative enables you to:

Your evaluation plan should be linked to your results. At the very least, your evaluation plan should specify the following:

Evaluations can also include:

Remember: Structure your evaluation to suit the size and complexity of your project. If your grant request is for $15,000 to purchase and plant trees in a local park, your evaluation plan will be very simple since the results and activities will be both straightforward and fairly limited in scope and number. On the other hand, a three-year project involving several collaborators and funding in the $250,000 range will require a more detailed evaluation plan, probably separate from this workplan form.