How do you learn from and improve your social impact performance over time?

Defining goals and indicators is key, but before defining the goal it is imperative to define the problem. It may seem easy, but defining the problem your solution is trying to address is the foundation on which success will be defined.

Reporting or learning? While some organizations prioritize compliance or funder reporting, it is crucial to establish a learning culture as the top priority. To learn and improve your social impact performance over time you need consistent relevant data from your stakeholders. Data-driven learning can increase program efficiency, and product or service quality to scale. Just defining goals and indicators is not enough. To effectively collect and utilize data, it is important to map out the sources of your data from the very beginning to not waste resources.

I would break this part down into three separate steps. First, be clear on the difference you want to make - what’s your long term impact vision? Second, work out your strategy for achieving that vision - your theory of change. Third, develop metrics. There are two types of metrics - ones that test whether your theory of change (which is just a theory, based on assumption) holds true in reality, and then metrics that test your progress against that theory of change.

Collecting and analyzing data is a crucial step in improving social impact performance. Organizations must systematically gather data from stakeholders and operational sources. Stakeholder feedback through surveys helps identify areas for improvement, while operational data informs strategic decision-making. Data mapping involves defining learning goals, identifying information sources, and collecting targeted data. An impact data strategy requires clear organizational goals and relevant metrics that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Data collection should be structured, standardized, and clean to ensure quality. Skilled data analysts can derive meaningful insights from the data to inform decision-making.

There are three different things you are measuring with a theory if change. First you need to test whether your theory holds up in reality - when you do one thing, does it have the series of knock on effects you expected? Secondly, you need to measure the effectiveness of your theory of change - are you maximising your impact or are there opportunities to improve your per unit metrics? Third is measuring your progress against your theory of change.

In today’s globally interconnected world, it is easy to communicate results, but incredibly tough to communicate results in a meaningful manner and to the right audience. It is tough to communicate results that are easily understandable, read by the target audience and help aspire positive change.

In my experience, the best way to communicate results before you chose a format or channel is to define the behavior outcome you want from your audience. Is it funding? Approval for a continuation of the program? Then after you define that, you have to think of who your audience is - do they respond best to numbers? Compelling narrative? Defining these two key components will help you choose the best way to present your results.

Oftentimes in the universe of social impact measurement and assessment, the more palatable and agreeable results are the ones that get communicated and amplified. While it is of course important to share positive outcomes and where genuine, meaningful impact has been delivered (and to learn how and why), it is crucial that the 'uncomfortable truths' of evaluative work are properly reported and acted upon too. Building a culture where such conversations are not skirted around within social impact measurement is a vital component in delivering trust, accountability and ultimately quality and meaning to evaluative practice.

Know your ecosystem and the players and how they each interconnect - relationships are essential to building consensus for positive change. Also sometimes key insights come from voices you wouldn't expect, which is why it's extremely important to truly understand the communities you're working in.

Rinse and repeat. None of the above are one and done but an ongoing journey in your organization’s development. Be sure to involve all your stakeholders on the journey. Your employees, your customers, your distributors, your partners, your boards of directors, and of course the communities in which you operate.

In my experience as the founder of Equity Quotient, the ability to truly measure impact over time is by considering 5 key factors. We need: 1. Rich data powered by accurate information from multiple public and private sources to create actionable insights 2. Regional benchmarking to understand the world you live in and how you look compared to peers 3. Ecosystem alignment 4. Easy to manage goal setting and tracking systems 5. Clear, automated reporting systems These are often costly to implement for companies in both money and time, but the explosion of AI and ML can make this process more accessible to everyone to truly create solutions to ensure we’re helping to drive a thriving economy powered by its people.