Poveikio matavimas - Socialinis verslas

Why measure?

Organizations measure impact for a number of reasons - to ascertain or evaluate the effectiveness of their impact-creating activities and to answer the question of whether their approach really contributes to solving a social problem and whether it does so effectively. With the answers to these questions, the results of impact measurement can serve to show the public, clients, investors, their employees, volunteers that their activities really make a significant difference. Finally, the results of impact measurement can prompt whether the organization’s resources are being used purposefully and whether strategic goals are being achieved.

Impact can be measured in two ways - by collecting qualitative or quantitative information. Let’s try to figure which way fits you the most!

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Qualitative research

In most cases, young social impact organizations start with qualitative research. Qualitative information is the feedback from the beneficiaries - how their lives have changed since your intervention, whether it has helped to reduce or eliminate the consequences of the problem. The main methods of qualitative research are interviews or focus groups, according to a questionnaire prepared by you.

Key tips for preparing for a qualitative study:

01.

We advise you not to prepare the survey tool at your own discretion. Take a look at sociological surveys and other good scientific practices to find out which questions are most valuable for your particular topic.

02.

Build your research questionnaire based on your Theory of change. Formulate questions to help you assess whether you are achieving your impact goals.

03.

We remind you that tips on how to conduct interviews as well as possible can be found in the topic about the target group.

04.

You may not be able to interview your beneficiaries directly. For example, if they are very young children, or people with severe disabilities. In that case, think about who could speak for them - parents, teachers, social workers. It is important that this is done by people who know the beneficiary and their relationship to the problem.

05.

If you have the opportunity, interview study participants at least twice, before and after your intervention. In this case, you will receive the most accurate and sincere information and will be able to assess what results you have achieved. If you interview the target group only after the intervention, their memories of the past and the time before the intervention may be faded, and it will be difficult to compare the results.

Quantitative research

Having mastered the collection of qualitative information, organizations are gradually beginning to conduct quantitative research as well. After conducting a qualitative study and taking interviews from your beneficiaries, you can see that after your intervention they claim to feel better, more confident. However, these results are still abstract, subjective, and difficult to compare with each other. In order to achieve more accurate and tangible results, we use indicators to help.

Indicators are proof that you have achieved your impact targets. Most often, they are noticeable, countable indicators that help you understand what (what strength) impact you have created for your target group.

If your organisation's long-term impact goal is a safe neighborhood, the number of crimes committed in that neighborhood can be cited as a good example of an indicator. If you work with fitness and physical activity programs, you may choose to monitor and measure the duration of physical activity or range of motion of your target group. There can be a wide range of indicators, both qualitative and quantitative.

One of the most common exemplary qualitative indicators in the literature is children's belief that a bright future awaits them. The goal of all of them is the same - to help you validate the theory of change.

Social enterprises often seek change that is intangible - it cannot be counted, weighed or measured with a thermometer. These include increased self-confidence, better social skills, decreased anxiety, and so on. In this case, it will be necessary to look for a tool to help measure such a qualitative indicator. The tools we are talking about are scales and questionnaires developed by sociologists. Which tool you choose can be prompted by abundant scientific articles Google Scholar search engine, or databases, here is one of them: https://www.midss.org.
You can also visit the library with a question about sociological research tools. Libraries also have access to paid electronic databases.

For an indicator to be good, it must be measurable. Each indicator should have four main objectives that answer the following three questions:

01.

How many members of the target group need to be reached?
How many people need to be involved in your work for the theory chain you created to work? Align your long-term impact goals with the resources you will have. Specify the exact number of people or percentage of your target audience.

02.

How strong the impact has to be?
How much does the current situation need to change for the impact you are looking to have? Will it suffice, for example, if your chosen indicator changes by 5%, and perhaps a 500% change is needed?

03.

When should this impact be achieved?
Think of a chronological sequence of events in the theory of change - perhaps it will suggest when you should reach the movement of this particular indicator. If you know that you would like to achieve long-term impact in 5 years, this can help you understand when you should achieve your short- and medium-term goals.

What to do next?

Perfect situation

If organizations would not have any shortage of resources, we would suggest naming several indicators for each of your impact goals in the chain. In reality, however, resources to gather information and measure impact are extremely limited. Social enterprises can name indicators for all impact goals, but choose to measure only a few of the goals that are essential to their organizations.

Reality

There are several things that can help you make this decision.

First, evaluate what information you can gather most effectively and what you can find in publicly available sources.

Also, assess how you want to measure your success, what you will want to brag about to all stakeholders. This part is especially important if you are thinking about potential financial backers. Consider what evidence they and other stakeholders would expect from your organization.

For initial chain-of-change validation, indicators are measured twice, once when you create your change theory, and once after the time you specify when an impact should occur. After the second measurement, you will be able to see if you have achieved your planned indicator goals (who, what strength, when). Then choose the frequency and intensity of the tests individually according to your needs.
Our advice - try to involve as many participants of your program as possible in the survey - the more accurate the results will be. If not everyone is interviewed, the most important thing is to select participants to the research group as randomly and blindly as possible, it is possible to use a lottery, random list generators, etc. This will ensure objectivity.