Theory of Change
Our Theory of Change is a roadmap to how we will achieve our vision. Specifically, we aim to create a world where everyone has the best possible eye health and equal opportunities, regardless of vision loss.
We want to Save Sight. Change Lives.
This vision is our north star, and it informs everything we do, ensuring that the money we receive from fundraisers delivers the maximum impact and guides those applying to us for funding on the changes we want to see in the world.
How we will deliver impact through our theory of change
In delivering impact, we're guided by three core principles: Inform, Invest, Influence. That means we focus on four key areas to drive change and deliver a brighter future for everyone impacted by vision loss. Specifically, we will:
- Proactively engage with blind and vision impaired people, sector organisations and researchers to find out what matters most to them. By doing so, we'll identify barriers to collaboration, innovation, and sustainability – and opportunities for growth.
- Fund, monitor, and evaluate high-quality projects across the patient pathway that:
- Enhance knowledge and data,
- Test hypotheses, and generate new ideas/proof of concept
- Build capacity and talent
- Connect people and ideas to maximise impact and accelerate change.
- Disseminate insights and evidence widely in the service of new partnerships and collaborations, adoption of ideas that are proven to work and the policy and systems change needed to go further, faster.
- Make information and opportunities easily accessible and available to people impacted by vision loss, ensuring that knowledge is shared widely and people have what they need to make informed decisions.
The individual steps within our theory of change
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01. Inform
We proactively engage with blind and vision-impaired people, sector organisations, and researchers to determine what matters most to them.
The insights we gather inform the design of our programmes.
We do this through Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE), our Early Career Research Network (ECRN, pictured below) and through regular communications with the people and organisations we fund.
We’re active in the sectors we fund, participating in sector-wide initiatives, particularly in the pursuit of improved evaluation and understanding how the work we fund can make an even greater impact.
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02. Invest
Income generation supports the long-term funding of scientific research and social change.
The grants we award accelerate our vision to: Save Sight. Change Lives.
We frame our investments around three key areas:
- Discover
- Build
- Connect
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03. Discover
Our funding:
- Enables researchers and organisations to develop new and innovative solutions based on the latest data and evidence.
- Delivers proof of concept and unlocks future funding.
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04. Build
Our funding:
- Attracts, retains and develops research talent.
- Supports service design that is insights-driven and promotes equitable access for anyone impacted by vision loss, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances.
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05. Connect
Our funding:
- Convenes the people and resources needed to accelerate scaling up and widespread adoption of best practice and impactful work.
- Contributes to strengthening infrastructure that accelerates change.
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06. Influence
- We disseminate insights and evidence widely to foster new partnerships and collaborations, adopt proven ideas, and drive the policy and systems changes needed to move forward more quickly.
- By disseminating insights, convening experts and attracting onward investment and widespread adoption of impactful work, we multiply the impact of our funding.
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07. Inform
- Making information and opportunities easily accessible to people impacted by vision loss means that knowledge is shared widely so that people can make informed choices.
- We make information widely available to encourage Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) and participation in clinical and other research projects.
Download a PDF copy of our theory of change.
It includes the scale of the challenge facing us, our strategic approach to driving change, the steps we will take to implement changes, and how we'll measure success in the short, medium, and long term.
What does success look like?
Our theory of change clearly defines the change we want to see in the world. It's vital we also describe how we'll measure success across each of our key impact pillars: Inform, Invest and Influence.
Below, we've outlined short, medium and long-term ambitions across each area.
What success looks like for our inform work
We aim to develop a more effective funding landscape that delivers discoveries, equitable service, and better solutions for anyone impacted by vision loss.
In the short term, people with direct and indirect lived experience, sector organisations and researchers will be actively involved in shaping our research priorities and funding schemes.
By 2030, our funding portfolio will clearly respond to priorities and unmet needs:
We will be a recognised convenor and initiator of impactful grant-making beyond the immediate sectors we fund.
Beyond 2030, the broader grant-making landscape will be demonstratively more responsive to the needs of people, researchers, and sector organisations, informed by the evidence that we and others have gathered.
What we’ll measure
To monitor success, we will measure:
- The quality and diversity of engagement across all funding schemes.
- How our funding is responding to specific needs.
- The extent to which other funders are replicating our practices.
If we can start a clinical study funded by Fight for Sight, where we can show some benefits, we know we can leverage significant funding using good preliminary data.
Invest: What success looks like
In the short term, we will build a portfolio of high-quality projects that balances tried and tested funding schemes with new ones: high-quality evidence gathering (e.g., reports) and new networks that nurture talent (e.g., our Early Career Research Network).
By 2030, our portfolio will represent a more varied risk profile, including projects that are riskier or closer to translational outcomes.
Fight for Sight will play an increased role in larger projects, bringing more treatments closer to patients and delivering more consistent services for blind and vision impaired people.
In the longer term, there will be sufficient and appropriate funding and infrastructure available to make more treatments accessible to patients and to reduce the negative outcomes currently associated with vision loss.
Beyond 2030, the wider grant-making landscape will be more responsive to the needs of people, researchers, and sector organisations, informed by the evidence that we and others have gathered.
What we'll measure
To monitor success, we will measure:
- Citations, publications and evidence of attracting onward funding.
- The extent to which we have a well-balanced, funded portfolio.
- The amount of money invested in vision loss research and the consistency of access to support for people, regardless of where they live or their circumstances.
“If you show that surgery isn’t helpful, then good. We don’t need to put people through surgery [or] if we show that surgery is beneficial, we know that everybody should be offered it. So, either way, the result will be of value.”
Influence: What Success looks like
In the short term, we’ll gain recognition for the impact of the work we fund, leading to greater joint funding efforts with sector organisations and a higher profile for the work of our grantees.
By 2030, the work that we fund will be increasingly built on by others in our sector, and we will have a reputation as a trusted expert because of our evidence and insights.
Beyond 2030, we expect to see better research capacity, capabilities and knowledge in the sectors we work in, leading to systems change.
We’ll work in partnership and bring people together to work towards better consistency and quality of services. We’ll focus on initiatives that smooth the path from discovery to available treatments.
What we'll measure
- Number of people accessing our evidence of impact digitally and through events and other engagement opportunities.
- Others taking up our work and scaling and adopting it.
- Indicators of a better-connected sector that is having more influence, including on the policy landscape.
Informing people with vision loss: what success looks like
We will make information easily accessible and available to people with vision loss, increasing their understanding of research progress and opportunities.
This will also include information on clinical trials.
Already, our website contains a wealth of information in our A-to-Z pages.
Still, we want to build on this and deliver tailored information about vision loss conditions, raise awareness of clinical trials and other research-related activities, and explain or signpost people to how and where they can participate.
We’ll also share information from the social change work we fund, which evaluates ways that people can rediscover confidence, independence and agency following a vision loss diagnosis or as their life circumstances change.
In the short term, people will be able to access a ‘hub’ of information about the work we fund and how to get involved in our grant-making process.
By 2030, we will be recognised as a trusted and credible source of information, with people accessing our information through many routes, including other people’s websites.
In the longer term, we will be the first and preferred destination for people looking for the latest in vision research and evidence of what works (and what doesn’t).
We will measure
- Web analytics, visits to our online information.
- Referrals to our information by others.
Stories of impact
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Our theory of change
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What success looks like
- Our theory of change
- What success looks like