Can impact measurement be inspiring?
On 6th June we co-hosted an event in Exeter with Social Value UK – one of a series of Roadshows they are running across the country as part of the Inspiring Impact Programme – https://www.inspiringimpact.org/
There was a great mix of people in the room – some with lots of experience, others just starting out. The main ‘take outs’ from the session were:
- thinking about whose outcomes you are measuring… for example if you are running groups to raise awareness about benefits, you may be measuring outcomes around benefits uptake for your funder but find that the main outcome for participants is feeling less isolated.
- valuing outcomes – asking participants how valuable outcomes are to them and then weighting them accordingly. So, in the previous example, feeling less isolated could have a higher weighting.
- doing anything to measure outcomes is better than doing nothing – it doesn’t have to be perfect.
- measuring impact is a journey – and needs to be taken one step at a time, to be proportionate to the size of your organization and its resources, and appropriate for your clients.
The event highlighted for us, the interest from local organisations in learning more about impact measurement – and in learning from each other. We are, therefore planning to arrange another network event in September focusing on impact measurement. If you would be interested, do drop us a message at info@claritycic.org.uk to tell us what you’d like to see at the event.
We have also set up a new Facebook group as an initial way to share resources, experiences and to ask questions. Clarity will be moderating this group, and highlighting relevant good practice and ideas within it. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClarityCICImpact/
Do join us! Also check out http://www.socialvalueuk.org and https://www.inspiringimpact.org/