Community Impact Planner

The Western Australian Community Impact Hub (the Impact Hub) is a free online tool to support WA not-for-profits and local governments to maximise the positive social impact from their funded projects and initiatives.

A central source of data, knowledge and insight, it houses a suite of simple, practical tools to support improved project design, impact planning and outcomes-based funded community projects.

We've built the Impact Hub to simplify the outcomes-based grant-making journey, and to share knowledge and learning to build the capacity of our not-for-profit and local government community in planning for impact.

Whilst the Impact Hub was developed for Western Australian not-for-profits and local governments, anyone is able to access it to help develop their own impactful projects regardless of receiving funding from Lotterywest or Healthway.

It will also be a resource for government departments and research organisations to support connection and collaboration across sectors and between organisations for capacity building and amplified social impact.

The Impact Hub has three core functions which users can utilise in various ways.

1. Users can access up-to-date, Western Australian data and information to help them identify community need and opportunity.
2. Users can access case studies, grants libraries and reports to learn from and connect with other organisations who have delivered similar initiatives​.
3. Users can access the Community Impact Planner, an interactive tool to help them to apply best practice project planning and evaluation approaches.

The case studies on the Impact Hub are real projects, which have been supported by Lotterywest, Healthway, or both. They cover a range of focus areas and come from large, medium and small organisations and local governments from all over WA. Case studies are made available by the project owners, so that organisations can learn from the experiences of others. While you may not see a project exactly like yours, chances are there are likely to be learnings that you can apply to your own initiative, or you could even reach out to organisations to chat about their outcomes.

Through the Impact Planner, our customers can develop a theory of change to cement their project vision, use the logic model to plan project activities and link them to the project’s intended impacts, and use the evaluation planner to measure the success of the project, defining the data and evidence that will be needed to properly communicate a project’s impact. ​

A Theory of Change will help you to articulate a clear vision for your project. In a sentence, you will be able to demonstrate what issue your project will address, how it will address it and what outcomes it will achieve. There’s a handy video on the Hub which walks you through the process of developing a theory of change.

A Logic Model will help you plan out your project in more detail and identify how the project will have an impact. This includes identifying the resources you will need to deliver your activities and outcomes. There’s a handy video on the Hub which walks you through the process of developing a logic model.

An Evaluation Plan outlines how you’ll measure the success of your project. This includes planning what data and evidence you’ll need to collect to track your outcomes and clearly communicate them. There’s a handy video on the Hub which walks you through the process of developing an evaluation plan.

No, completion of the Community Impact Planner is not required to apply for a grant with Lotterywest or Healthway. However, grants that have gone through a process of planning for impact and identifying their best evaluation strategies are more likely to be successful in the long term, and to achieve the impacts they intend.

Yes. The Community Impact Planner is a stand-alone tool that can be used for any program or project. We’ve seen it applied to Strategic Planning, holiday planning and even renovation planning!

No, the Community Impact Planner can be applied to any project, from the smallest ask, to the largest. The difference is the anticipated scope and scale of the project, which influences the level of detail provided in your Community Impact Plan. We have six examples of projects at different scales on the Impact Hub. You can check them out here: http://communityimpacthub.wa.gov.au/plan-your-project/community-impact-planner

No, however you can use this tool to create documents that you may want to attach to a Lotterywest or Healthway grant application or send to other funders to strengthen your proposal. You can find out about Lotterywest or Healthway grants by visiting our website.

While submission is not mandatory, users can submit their Community Impact Plan as part of their supporting material for grant applications. This is encouraged, as it is of value to our grant assessors, who will be able to see at a glance the outcomes your project intends to achieve, and the community need you are looking to address. It is also of value to our acquittals team, who will be able to see at a glance how you have achieved your outcomes.

No. You can save and export your plan, but it will not be visible to anyone unless you choose to share it. You can do that by sharing the link, or an exported PDF. Lotterywest Healthway will not be able to view your Community Impact Plan unless you submit it to us as supporting material to a grant application. 

There is no limit to the number of plans you can make.

No, the Community Impact Planner is a free resource provided for the benefit of the community.

The Knowledge & Learning and Social Impact teams at Lotterywest are your first points of contact for support and guidance with the Community Impact Planner tools.

We can help you through this process in advance of developing your grant application, or even in advance of developing your project!

We can coordinate online sessions to help you and your team plan your project to achieve positive community outcomes, and to measure and evaluate your success.

There will also be a range of webinars, workshops, and connection opportunities available to organisations, so if you’d like information on future opportunities to optimise your project planning and grant development, please subscribe for updates at: http://communityimpacthub.wa.gov.au/subscribe

There’s a handy video on the Hub to help you find your way around the Community Insights Tool, but if you need a little more support, we can put you in touch with our Knowledge and Insights and Social Impact teams to help you use the tools to develop an impactful project.

From the Understand your Community tab you can access a range of Western Australian data that will help you to assess the priority areas in your community. You can browse indicators that show how WA is tracking in each of the five wellbeing categories under the Lotterywest Healthway Community Impact Framework, or 'deep dive' into the data on your community using our Community Insights Tool. If you need a little more support, we can put you in touch with our Knowledge and Insights and Social Impact teams to help you use the tools to develop an impactful project.

The Community Impact Hub has information and tools that can help you learn more about how your community is going, based on publicly available data, as well as learning from others about what has been happening to help support the community.

You can also find great information from your Local Government, peak organisations and neighbourhood centres or local groups.

The Lotterywest Healthway Social Impact team would be happy to provide general support. You can contact us on 133 777 or grants@lotterywest.wa.gov.au

The Centre for Social Impact at the University of Western Australia has a range of courses that can help you learn more about social impact. You may also want to join SIMNA Ltd which is a network of people interested in learning and sharing information about social impact. 

The University of Technology Sydney has free, online learning programs and tools which include a database of verified social impact measurement tools.

Visit the Lotterywest website at lotterywest.wa.gov.au 

Visit the Healthway website at healthway.wa.gov.au 

A directory of State Government grants is available at dlgc.communities.wa.gov.au/AdviceSupport/Pages/LG-Grants-Directory.aspx

A directory of Commonwealth Government grants is available at grants.gov.au

Philanthropy Australia is a good place to find out more about other funding that may be available to you philanthropy.org.au/seek-funding/

Our Lotterywest Healthway team would be happy to help you. Please contact us on 133 777 or grants@lotterywest.wa.gov.au