Lesson 36 · The Grant Architect

36. Activities - The Intervention

30 min

By the end you'll be able to

  • Write activities that specify population, dosage, and delivery method.
  • Map each activity to the inputs that enable it and the outputs it produces.
  • Avoid activity overload by matching the number of activities to the available resources.
  • Recognize and rewrite vague activity language that reviewers cannot evaluate.

Activities are what you actually do with the inputs. They are the verbs of your logic model: deliver workshops, conduct screenings, provide case management, distribute materials, facilitate peer support groups, run a paid internship cohort. In this lesson you learn to describe activities at the right level of specificity, because vague activities ("we will engage the community") signal that the program has not been designed yet.

You will practice writing activities that name the population, the dosage, and the delivery method. "Deliver eight ninety-minute financial literacy workshops to forty first-generation college students per semester" is an activity a reviewer can evaluate. "Provide financial education" is not. The dosage detail matters because it lets the reader judge whether the intended outcomes are realistic given the level of intervention.

By the end you should be able to map each activity to the inputs that enable it and to the outputs and outcomes it is supposed to produce. You will also learn to avoid activity overload, the common pattern where a small budget is loaded with ten activities and none of them get enough dosage to actually change anything. Fewer, better-resourced activities almost always beat a long, thin list.

Common mistakes

These are the traps learners hit most often on this topic. Knowing them in advance is half the fix.

  • Using verbs that hide the actual work.

    Words like "engage," "support," and "empower" tell the reviewer nothing about what will happen. Replace them with specific verbs the program staff will actually perform.

  • Listing activities the budget cannot deliver.

    An activity that requires staff capacity, partner capacity, or participant capacity beyond what the inputs column supports is not a real activity, it is a wish.

Practice problems

Try each on paper first. Click Show solution only after you've made a real attempt.

  1. Problem 1
    Rewrite this weak activity statement: "We will provide job readiness training to underserved adults."
    Show solution

    Deliver a twelve-week cohort-based job readiness program (two three-hour sessions per week, 72 hours total) to forty adults returning to the workforce after incarceration, combining classroom instruction, mock interviews, and one-on-one coaching with a certified workforce specialist.

Practice quiz

  1. Question 1
    Which of the following is the best-written activity statement?
  2. Question 2
    What is the "activity overload" pattern the lesson warns against?
  3. Reflection 3
    Why does the lesson argue that "dosage" matters as much as the activity itself?

Lesson 36 recap

Activities are the verbs of the logic model, and they only earn reviewer trust when they specify who, how much, and how the work will be delivered.

Coming next: Lesson 37 — Outputs - The Widgets

Next, we count the products of those activities by drafting the outputs column and confronting the most common mistake in the entire framework.

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