What we did:

Comic Relief commissioned Apteligen to evaluate the Smiles Fund, a national grant programme supporting a diverse portfolio of community organisations working to improve the emotional wellbeing and resilience of vulnerable people facing poor mental health and wellbeing. The programme brought together projects with very different delivery models, target groups and levels of evaluation experience, creating the challenge of generating credible programme-wide evidence while recognising the unique contribution of each funded organisation.

How we did it:

We delivered a mixed-methods programme evaluation that combined quantitative and qualitative evidence from projects across the funding portfolio. Alongside evaluating the overall programme, we worked directly with funded organisations to strengthen their monitoring and evaluation approaches, helping them articulate outcomes in a consistent and meaningful way. Our analysis brought together evidence from multiple sources to identify common themes, understand variation in delivery, and produce a clear picture of how different approaches contributed to improved wellbeing, confidence, resilience and social connection.

What the project achieved:

The evaluation demonstrated the collective impact of the Smiles Fund while recognising that different projects achieved positive outcomes in different ways. By identifying the common factors that supported success across the programme, we helped Comic Relief understand what worked, for whom, and under what circumstances. The findings informed future funding and programme development, while giving funded organisations practical evidence they could use to demonstrate their impact, improve delivery and strengthen their own future funding applications.

A copy of the final evaluation report is available here, plus individual project summaries here.

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