Design Council Impact Toolkit
2023
Supporting the Design Council to embed reflection and learning through a new impact framework and toolkit.
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Having supported the Design Council (DC) for a number of years with monitoring and evaluation on individual programmes, we were thrilled to collaborate again - this time to design an overarching impact framework and toolkit to support evaluation across the organisation.
Our Approach
Working closely with our in-house ethics expert Rosemary Lamport, we developed an organisation-wide impact framework that clearly defines charity-wide outputs and outcomes. Alongside this, we designed a flexible suite of tools and methods that can be adapted to include project-specific measures.
Throughout the process, we worked collaboratively with the Design Council team to ensure the framework was not only robust and evidence-led, but also accessible and adaptable for staff across the organisation — supporting a culture of continuous learning and reflective practice.
Key Findings
The resulting toolkit includes:
Logic model – linking organisation-wide and project-specific outputs and outcomes to indicators and M&E methods.
M&E tracking spreadsheet – to record and manage evaluation data in one central place, with clear data ownership.
Ethics checklist and consent form – ensuring all evaluation is honest, rigorous and transparent, and that participants are protected.
Diversity monitoring form – to ensure DC’s work is shaped by, and benefits, people who bring diverse viewpoints, experiences and expertise.
Participatory evaluation tools – including surveys and interview guides to capture the impact and value of programme participation.
Dissemination tracker – for recording web analytics, citations and other forms of external reach.
Wash-up session template – to support structured feedback and learning from staff, clients and collaborators.
Impacts
The framework was developed to help DC:
stay focused on their Design for Planet mission;
check they are meeting their objectives at both project and organisational levels;
enable reflection and iteration so that programme design and working practices can improve; and
encourage a culture of reflection, individual and organisational learning.
The new framework and toolkit enable the Design Council to take a consistent, participatory, and ethical approach to monitoring and evaluation across all programmes. They provide a foundation for reflective learning and continuous improvement - strengthening the organisation’s ability to measure, understand and communicate its impact.
A big thank you to Irene Håkansson and Bernard Hay for bringing us in to work on this exciting project.
Please do get in touch.
“The Design Council commissioned Shortwork to help develop an evaluation framework and toolkit that could be used across the work of the charity. Rowena and Rosemary were brilliant at helping us to build on our existing tools and developed a consistent M&E approach that was tailored to the needs of the organisation. The resulting framework is comprehensive but succinct, easy-to-use, and can be adapted across the breadth of work we do. At the end of the project, they also ran a fantastic training session for the organisation on the toolkit, which has been an invaluable first step in embedding this across our work.”
Bernard Hay, Head of Research and Practice, The Design Council
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