Measuring impact
In our impact measurement, we track and evaluate both our direct impact on social ventures and our indirect impact on children.
Measuring impact on social ventures
In order to understand the development of the social ventures we supported in 2017, we monitored:
- Their organizational growth, in terms of increase or decrease in revenues gained, staff employed, volunteers engaged, geographical footprint and number of children supported. Data was collected on a quarterly basis.
- The development of their organizational capabilities, by which we mean the components needed to support sustainable growth, for example, clear and engaging leadership, a sustainable business model and a viable impact scaling strategy. Organizational capabilities are assessed upon program entry (constituting the baseline) and thereafter at least once a year, using the assessment tool Development Tracker © 2015.
In order to get an indication on, to what extent the ventures’ development can be attributed to our support, we collected anonymous feedback from the social ventures about what role they think we played in their development during the past year.
In addition to tracking the development of the social ventures who are currently in our program, we also followed up with our Alumni on whether they are still in business and if they scaled.
Measuring impact on children
In order to understand the social ventures’ impact on children in 2017, we monitored:
- The number of children they reached. The social ventures reported this data quarterly and provided verification of their reach by, for example, uploading photos and attendance lists.
- How their work lead to improvement in children’s lives. The social ventures reported progress toward their targeted outcomes through outcome stories (quarterly) and outcome indicator results (annually). Their targeted outcomes differed, but they all worked to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals 1-5, 8-12 or 16. A selection of our social ventures’ outcome indicator results and impact stories can be found on page 18-25.
Reporting that benefits rather than distracts
It is important to us, that our reporting requirements are proportional to the support we provide and, ideally, that the process of reporting benefits, rather than distracts our social ventures. With this in mind we were happy to see that, when we surveyed our social ventures anonymously (with a 76 % response rate), that almost two thirds think that Reach for Change’s 2017 quarterly reporting process contributed considerably or greatly to:
- Learnings about their organization’s results and progress (64 %)
- Having a set of stories and data that they could communicate to their other stakeholders (64 %)
- Development of regular routines for their data collection (62 %)
How we work to continuously learn and develop
Impact and program data from our 17 markets is systematically collected, compiled and quality-assured by our Central Impact Team - throughout the year. An initial analysis and assessment of results is conducted, together with members of the Central Program Team, who, where applicable, dig deeper together with Country Program Managers and Regional Directors. The primary goal of the analysis we conduct is to identify areas for improvement and actions needed for that improvement, but also to identify good practices which we share in our monthly Global Program Team meetings.
