measuring the impact of your charity belinda vernon david pritchard 29 th september 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Measuring the impact of your charity
Belinda Vernon
David Pritchard
29th September 2011
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About NPC : doing good, better
• Our purpose is to help charities and funders achieve greater impact
• Part think tank, part consultancy
• A charity, founded in 2001, currently 30 staff
Research Consulting Communications• social issues• structural challenges • new ideas
• advice for charities• advice for funders• support to intermediaries
• lead the debate on effectiveness• disseminate NPC’s knowledge and tools
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Questions about impact
Where should we start?
What if our results don’t look good?
Why do I need to think about our impact?
How should we measure?
How do we know if we are doing well?
How do we know what is good?
How do we focus the staff on
impact?
What should we do with the information
on our impact?
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Measurement: the bare bones
Why measure
What to measure
How to measure
How to use the information
. . . . . . . Find out how you make a difference?
. . . . . . . Test each element of your theory of change
. . . . . . . Qualitative and quantitative
. . . . Target your audience
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Why measure your impact?
You should measure the impact your charity has if you want to:
- increase the impact you have; and / or - demonstrate your impact to stakeholders.
Hard to do either well if you cannot measure the impact of your charity.
You don’t need to measure your impact only if these are not priorities!
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What?
You should start with:
• A clearly defined goal (or goals) that can be tracked, albeit imperfectly, such as:
- “To enable people with mental illness or epilepsy to live and work successfully in their own communities”
- “To make sure the best of the past is kept to enrich our lives today and in the future”
• A ‘Theory of Change’ that explains how the activities of your charity bring about, or you think will bring about, the desired goal or goals.
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Putting these together
Goal:Funders and
charities increase their
impact Outcome 2:
Charities / funders improve
their effectiveness
Outcome 1:Increased
understandingof what makes
charitieseffective
Activity 2: Consultancy
Activity 3: Communi-
cations
Activity 1:Research
Outcome 3:Charities / funders understand how
to improve effectiveness
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How?
Number of options depending on what you want to achieve and your processes:
• Types of measures:• Objective or “hard” measures (eg, people employed)• Subjective or “soft” measures (eg, how people feel)
• Methods:• Questionnaires / surveys• Case management data• Administrative data• One-off evaluations
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How to use impact data
Purpose
Strategy
Activities
Impact
Government – influence
Charity Commission – compliance
Funders/donors – raise funds
Beneficiaries/public – public accountability
External
Inte
rnal
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Belinda VernonDirector of Research & Consulting
[email protected]: 020 7620 4855
David PritchardHead of Measurement and Evaluation
[email protected]. 020 7620 4889
www.philanthropycapital.org