Measuring your impact

Measuring your impact is more complex than counting the income that you raise, or the services you deliver, but it is possible in even the smallest voluntary organisation.

There are many methods of collecting information to measure a voluntary organisation’s impact depending on their work, budget and whether they need numbers or stories. Popular methods for measuring impact include questionnaires, interviews, focus groups or evaluation forms. You can also look at existing data you haven’t collected yourself, such as that held by the government, or use more creative methods like video, pictures or diaries. Finally, don’t forget the informal things that you or your volunteers observe in your work.

The process of collecting this data is called monitoring. The process of drawing conclusions from the evidence you have and making judgements about it is called evaluation.

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Figure 2 Evidence to show it works.

You don’t need to be a researcher to monitor and evaluate your impact. Sometimes complicated or long-term impacts can feel hard to measure, or you might feel that you cannot tell if an impact was definitely a result of your work. But you don’t have to look for scientific proof of your impact: your responsibility is just to look for the best possible evidence you can find with your available time and money. There are many resources available within the voluntary sector to guide you on this, for example from NCVO Charities Evaluation Services [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] or from Evaluation Support Scotland.

In this video the Chief Executive of Evaluation Support Scotland covers some of the concerns that voluntary organisations raise around monitoring and evaluation of their impact in a light-hearted and amusing way:

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Activity 5

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes
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Planning your impact

Communicating your impact