Introduction to Impact Measurement
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Simon Mayell, South West Forum Demonstrating Do you know your value?
Transcript of Introduction to Impact Measurement
Simon Mayell, South West Forum
Demonstrating
Do you know your value?
I’m not going to give you the web link until the final slide!
Impact Hub South WestDeveloping a culture of good impact practice
Access to Quality, Expert, Independent support:– Advice– Training– Consultancy– Resources– Research
Building on...Proving Our Value Project• 5 longitudinal case studies to measure impact of SPOs
“the broad or longer-term effects of a project or organisation’s work (also referred to as the difference it makes). This can include effects on people who are direct users of a project or organisation’s work, effects on those who are not direct users, or effects on a wider field such as government policy.” Inspiring Impact: The Code of Good Impact Practice
A Definition…
Impact Measurement – Why Bother?
Measuring our impact – why bother?
• Making good decisions and plan services
• Motivation for staff and users
• Being open and accountable
• Stronger communication of the value of your work to
‘the people that matter’
• Winning business
• Increased understanding of the full social, economic
and environmental impact of your work
What else do you want / need to do?
Set some objectives
For example•Assess the impact our new toenail cutting service is having on the perceived wellbeing of our existing client group
Or perhaps….
• Assess our social impact on the community of a particular parish through our work in the second half of 2013 for our own learning and to help our bid to the Big Lottery
Key Terms
• Inputs - resources invested in your activity• Outputs - the direct and tangible products from
the activity• Outcomes - changes to people resulting from the
activity• Impact - Outcomes over time less an estimate of
what would have happened anyway, who else might have contributed, impact over time etc.
• Value = relative importance of outcomes to stakeholders
Foundational Questions
Ask Yourself:•What Difference do we want
to make?• How do we know that we are
making a difference?
Some Principles• Clear purpose: A clear mission, aims, objectives, outputs
and outcomes
• Defined scope: Clarity about which aspects of work will be covered and who will be consulted this time round.
• Engaged stakeholders. Identify relevant stakeholders and consult them as part of the impact assessment process.
• Transparent: sharing findings with stakeholders
• Regular: not a one-off, a routine part of an organisation’s work
So what are you doing already?• Regular reports to funders, management, councillors• Annual report to Charity Commission or CIC regulator• Collecting customer feedback regarding services
provided• Complying with formal quality or other external
standards• Consulting clients, partners or the local community
on planned services or amendments to services• Other…..
Ready, steady, go...
Develop your own Impact framework (Monitoring on a Shoe String, CES)
Specific aims Outcomes Outcomeindicators
Informationcollectionmethods
When and bywhom
How to reportand use
Aim 1
Which tools? • Inspiring Impact – over 139 tools
• Frameworks:
– Social accounting (Social Audit Network)
• Social
– Eg. outcomes stars
• Economic
– Eg. LM3, SROI
• Environmental
– Eg. eco-mapping, EMAS-easy
Or develop your own!
Tell the story …• Include:–Quantitative outputs– qualitative narrative
and images– Financial data and
monetisation where appropriate, – Links to relevant
strategies– Testimony and
anecdotes from range of perspectives
“We’re more interested in people telling stories about how their lives have changed as a result of what we’ve done. The difficulty with a lot of impact is that it finds it hard to deal with narrative”Dawn Austwick, CEO Big Lottery (speaking whilst CEO Esmee Fairbarn Foundation)
Exercise
How far is your organisation along this measurement spectrum?
We know what outcomes we are trying to achieve
We are measuring how far we are achieving those
outcomes
We are able to define our full
impact
We understand the value of the
impact we create to stakeholders
What are your priorities / next steps?
Take home messages
• Be clear about your outcomes• Involve your stakeholders• Work with your commissioners /
investors• Collaborate• Seek Help
