Both outcomes and outputs are important. Outcome data helps you understand if you’re having an impact. Outputs help you understand your processes. If you’re doing Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), you’re probably collecting both outputs and outcome measures. Whether you’re interested in systems thinking or doing a collective impact approach, it’s important to understand if you’re having an impact. Knowing if you are making an impact allows you to course-correct. Course correcting is a key component of developmental evaluation. Understanding the difference between outcomes and outputs will help with your evaluation capacity building and nonprofit capacity building.