Project objectives

Whatever your group’s starting point and aspirations, it is important to be clear at the outset about what the project aims to achieve and why. This will enable you to determine whether the project is feasible. Therefore, your group must agree the project objectives at the earliest possible stage.

This does not mean that project objectives can’t evolve as the feasibility work proceeds. Changes may be necessary based on the information and advice that is gathered over time. However, being clear about your project objectives at the outset will help you to consider all the options and opportunities for meeting these that might be uncovered during the feasibility process. It will also enable you to track why any changes are made to the project objectives, and by who. 

Project objectives are:

•  Statements of what your community asset project aims to accomplish.
• Developed and agreed to guide the activities of the group so that everyone is going in the same direction. 
• Arrived at through a process of community consultation and gathering ideas from the group and other stakeholders.

Objectives can be a mixture of ‘outcomes’ and ‘outputs’.  Let's bust the jargon!

Outputs are the physical results of your project, such as ‘Anytown has a sports centre’ or 'Anytown will deliver 30 fitness classes' or '100 people a week will use our sports centre'. 

Outcomes are the changes that the project brings about for the people or groups that your project is intended to benefit, for example ‘local residents have greater levels of physical health and well-being’. Groups may find the Outcomes Matrix tool useful to plan and measure social outcomes.

At the initial stages, project objectives may start as a general statement like the one above. As feasibility work proceeds, this project objective may become more detailed and supplemented with others such as 'the objective of the project is to convert the town hall into space for sports activities on the ground floor with 6 two bed flats above, by March 2022' and ‘surplus revenue from the rents of the flats will pay for a worker to organise sports activities for young people’.

Project objectives should ideally be developed using the SMARTER acronym (see below) to test that they are focused and action oriented, and therefore enable effective decision-making and activity.

Project objectives should also give clarity about what benefits the project will bring about and how these are to be measured, and thereby enable you to identify what records need to be kept or data collected in order to monitor progress at specified times. This is particularly important for securing finance and business planning.

It may not be possible for all the project objectives to be SMARTER until some of the feasibility research is complete but, when it is, project objectives are used to inform the initial assessment and the development of the business plan.

It is worth spending time with all those involved in the project looking at the flexibility of your project objectives. Are there any that you cannot compromise on and others that you can, depending on whether they will affect the viability of the project?

For example, an initial project objective may be that it will provide community space for low cost hire to local groups. However, if this means that your asset will not earn enough money to meet revenue costs then the objectives may have to be amended. For example, a different way of managing the space may need to be adopted, perhaps using volunteers or a different pricing regime that involves some lets to commercial organisations at higher rates. It is possible for project objectives to change in light of the opportunities and constraints that present themselves as the project progresses. This provides opportunities to be both entrepreneurial and opportunistic.