Impact

Impact is the biggest claim a charity can make: that the world is different because it exists. That is also why it is the hardest to prove. The honest version accounts for what would have happened anyway, and separates the charity’s contribution from everything else going on.

Impact is the broader or longer-term change attributable to a charity’s work, assessed against what would have happened without it — the step beyond outcomes in the results chain. (Source: sector-standard definition — New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) / NCVO, accessed 9 July 2026.) For most small charities, measuring outcomes well and describing impact carefully is more credible than a full impact evaluation.

Report it honestly in your Trustees’ Annual Report and to funders: evidence your outcomes, be clear about attribution, and link back to your theory of change. The Impact Measurement Handbook shows how to do this proportionately.