Three levels of project results: outputs are what you produce directly; outcomes are the changes in behaviour or capacity of those the project reaches; impact is the broader long-term change to which the project only contributes. Confusing them is the most common reason for a weak impact section.
These three levels differ not in scale but in how much of them you control. That is the point that matters.
Outputs
The goods, services and tangible results of your activity: people trained, a methodology written, equipment installed, a paper published. The international definition adds plainly: outputs are within the control of the implementing team and attributable to it.
So if you do not control it, it is not an output.
Outcomes
The short- and medium-term effects of your outputs: trained people start applying the skills, an institution adopts the methodology, practice changes.
The key point: an outcome is already not fully within your control – external conditions stand between your output and a change in behaviour. That is exactly why assumptions sit next to this level in a logframe.
Impact
Higher-level, longer-term change to which outcomes lead. Here your contribution is one factor among many, and the honest formulation is "contribute to", not "achieve".
A terminological trap the international glossary warns about: "impacts" and "results" are often used interchangeably, which creates confusion. And impact as a result level is not the same as impact as an evaluation criterion.
How to test this in a proposal
The simplest check: if you claim you will achieve impact, you are either overstating or you have called an outcome an impact. Conversely, if your "outcome" is entirely within your control, it is an output.
Updated 27.07.2026 · Reviewed by: GetGrant editorial team
