Demonstrating impact - the basics

Over the past couple of months I have found myself facilitating one to one mentoring sessions for three different small charities in the West of England. Whilst these organisations all run diverse services and have differing client bases the one thing they all have in common is a desire to work out how to demonstrate the impact that they are having in an effective manner that is also sensitive to the needs of the people using their services.

And the more in depth my conversations with each of these three charity leaders became the more I realised that each of them knew what they wanted to achieve and all of them had some good ideas about how to go about it - but they were lacking a little confidence about what they were planning to do and needed some reassurance that they were heading in the right direction.

Most organisations will, sooner or later, be asked to measure and demonstrate the impact of what they do on people who use their services, their volunteers, the staff who work for them and the wider community. But why is assessing your impact crucial? The obvious answer is to satisfy funders. If you have deep and ongoing knowledge about the impact of what you are doing on those affected (either because they receive your services directly, work for you or are part of your local community) then you can make adjustments and changes accordingly. The final result should then be happier and more motivated staff, a more engaged, trusting and collaborative relationship with the people who use your services and the wider community and therefore a more effectively functioning organisation.

Faced with the many different methods that you could choose to evaluate the difference you are making it can be hard to know which one will be right for you and your client group and what your funders and commissioners expect. When is it appropriate to use a feedback survey without adding to survey fatigue? How do you gather the stories of those using your service in a sensitive way? Does your service affect different groups or communities in different ways? Are there any negative impacts to what you are doing? It can be good to consider these and not just your positive outcomes.

The quality of the data you are collecting is also key to ensuring you have accurate information about what is going on. Tracking the effectiveness of what you offer and adjusting as necessary is critical to understanding the impact of what you’re doing because:

Outputs show the work. Impact is why it counts.

This is a huge subject and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out how to get it right. So If you are lacking a little confidence around demonstrating your impact and are not sure where to start, then my free webinar might be for you. On the 18th November I, along with my colleague Catherine Brys, are running a short online session introducing some of the basic concepts and methods in impact evaluation and measurement. This is aimed at Boards and leaders of small to medium charities. For further details of what we will cover and how to book your place please go to my website www.martha-cox.com

Alternatively if you think some one to one mentoring on this issue would be helpful then do get in touch at engagement@martha-cox.com