Most Significant Change (MSC) is a participatory, qualitative evaluation approach.

Future Arts Centre is using MSC in a range of ways including:

• to evaluate FAC’s activities and impact as an organisation,
• to inform FAC’s strategy and decision-making as an organisation,
• to train arts centres to use MSC to evaluate their own impact and make strategic decisions,
• to build an evidence base for the wider impact that arts centres make across the UK.

MSC was originally developed by Rick Davis and Jess Dart and has proved a valuable and adaptable tool for many evaluators. It is particularly useful when evaluating people-orientated projects and services where it is important to hear what people feel in their own words, rather than asking them to squeeze their experiences into pre-determined boxes labelled with either your own or funders’ set of prescribed outcomes.

It can complement other evaluation data, including quantitative data, to add to the richness of the picture considered. MSC is a collaborative and non-hierarchical participatory way of identifying what has the greatest significance for people involved in accessing, delivering, and funding services – what matters most to all those involved, and why.

The technique uses ‘stories of change’ as data, collected with and analysed by project stakeholders through a process of shared discussion. By actively listening to stories from those directly involved in the work in some way – as audiences, participants, artists, team, partners and funders – it provides a valuable addition tool for learning organisations, responding to the challenges of the survey fatigue many people feel, and the complexities of evaluating personal, relational work.

You can read more about Most Significant Change in this report.