Measuring the impact of your organisation is an issue that comes up time and time again. Whether it’s for a funding application, to report back on a grant, or to help inform the development of services, measuring your impact is becoming more and more important for charities. Yet, how do you get help getting started, especially when you don’t have much resource?

Inspiring Impact text

The good news is that last month, Inspiring Impact launched the Inspiring Impact Hub, an online resource centre for organisations looking for ways to measure and demonstrate their social impact.  Charities can use it to search for information or guidance on particular aspects of social impact measurement, public data sets, measurement tools, or ideas on how to present data.  

During our engagements, organisations often ask for help sourcing a measurement tool or resource and being able to signpost them to a one stop shop where charities can search by sector is invaluable.  The Hub has launched with over 200 tools, systems and resources but is hoping to grow significantly as those involved in social impact measurement upload resources they are aware of.  Importantly,  the ability to rate and review  tools, means that as the site develops, charities will be able to use the experience of others to help decide which tools may work best for them.

Of course, the success of this project will be dependent on organisations taking it up and we would encourage our partner charities to have a look and make use of the site so that they can both benefit from and contribute to the shared learning.

So, what should charities think about when they are starting to measure impact and are considering using a resource like the Inspiring Impact Hub?

It is important that charities are clear about what it is they need to measure before they dive into a search for an off the shelf tool.  At Pilotlight, we help charities become more ‘measurement ready’ by helping them understand how measurement fits into the context of planning (being clear about their mission and social objectives) and then taking steps to unpick what they need to measure.  Through our Strategy Impact Map and elsewhere, we try to simplify the process by communicating key elements eg.

  • Evidence of need - clear definition of the issue, and the nature and size of the target group.
  • Evidence for the approach - drawing on published and unpublished literature for evidence of success.
  • Evidence of success in reaching the target group - by counting the numbers reached overall and giving a breakdown of the relevant characteristics.
  • Evidence of success in making a difference to the target group - by identifying realistic outcomes and measurable indicators for these.

Alongside the Hub, Inspiring Impact has launched ‘Measuring Up’, an online tool designed by the Charities Evaluation Service and built around the structure of the NCVO’s ‘Code of Good Impact Practice’.  This enables charities to rate the key elements of their impact practice and identify areas for improvement. 

However, even for charities who have a clear framework for measurement (ie. they can describe who will benefit from their work, have a clear mission statement that sets out the organisation’s overall value and purpose, and can describe the positive outcomes that they want to achieve for their beneficiaries) the Hub is a source for ideas and learning, not a ‘How to’ guide.  It is dominated by quantitative tools – not all of which will be appropriate (or affordable) for our smaller charities.  For them, the key is not to get carried away with a potentially overcomplicated or expensive off the shelf tool but to find simple solutions to impact measurement that fit their limited resource and can be built into operational tasks.  For these charities, in particular, the role of qualitative research for improving and demonstrating impact and value should not be overlooked.

Written by
Profile picture for user Anna Grey
Anna Grey
Evaluation Consultant - Cornish & Grey