How do we measure our charity's impact?
Impact measurement shows what changed for the people a charity helps, and almost none of it is a legal requirement. This hub takes trustees and managers through it in order: what to measure and for whom, a theory of change, indicators, a baseline and data collection, then honest findings and claims. It ends with the impact report, the public benefit statement and funder reports.
16 steps, in the order you meet them.
Every funder asks for outcomes and few explain what they mean by the word. This part separates what you did, what changed, and what you can honestly claim to have contributed to — three things routinely reported as though they were one.
It ends with reporting back, including the report nobody wants to write: the one where the project did not do what it was funded to do.
Look up
Glossary
- Grant
- Outcomes
- Impact
- Trustees’ annual report
- Minutes
- Outputs
- Public benefit
- Beneficiaries
- Evaluation
- Social Return on Investment (SROI)
- Theory of change
Tools
- SORP tier checker — Tool: planned
Templates
- Beneficiary survey — Template: planned
- Impact report skeleton — Template: planned
- Outcomes framework — Template: planned
- Theory of change canvas — Template: planned
Do
- Step 1 · Where do we even start with measuring our impact?
- Step 2 · Who are we actually helping?
- Step 3 · How do we write a theory of change?
- Step 4 · What's the difference between an output and an outcome?
- Step 5 · What should we actually count?
- Step 6 · Do we need Outcomes Star or SROI or one of those?
- Step 7 · How do we know if anything changed?
- Step 8 · How do we gather this without it taking over?
- Step 9 · How do we get people to fill in our survey?
- Step 10 · Do we need consent to ask beneficiaries about their outcomes? · legal risk: regulatory-sanction
- Step 11 · We have the data. Now what?
- Step 12 · What if it didn't work?
- Step 13 · Can we say we caused this?
- Step 14 · How do we write a charity impact report?
- Step 15 · What must we legally say about public benefit? · legal risk: regulatory-sanction
- Step 16 · What does our funder actually want?
Common questions
A theory of change is a one-page chain that explains a charity's work backwards, from the lasting change it wants to see down to what it actually does, with a reason written on each link. It is free and nobody owns it. Build your theory of change shows how.
A charity impact report covers what you did, what changed and for whom, what it cost, what did not go to plan and what you learned: the questions funders ask. No law requires one, and it claims contribution rather than cause. Write your impact report explains how to build it.
Almost none of impact measurement is a legal requirement. The law asks for the trustees' annual report, including how the charity's activities serve the public benefit; whether a Tier 1 charity must also explain its impact is contested. Funders often ask for more. Decide what you actually need to measure sorts the two.
Usually not for a small charity. Social return on investment puts a money value on the change a charity makes; the method is free, but it needs real resource, and assurance is paid and checks the method rather than the numbers. Choose a framework, or decide you don't need one compares the options and their costs.