Impact Meetup: Modelling your impact

IMPACT MEETUP
Modelling your impact
6.4.2016
www.impactor.fi Facebook: Impactor Consulting Twitter: @impactor_fi

WELCOME
● Jan 26th: How to structure an impact enterprise using the Social
Business Model Canvas
● Feb 24th: Today’s cooperativism & financing cooperatives
● Apr 6th: Modelling your impact
● May 3rd: Crowdfunding for impact enterprises

WHAT IS IMPACTOR & WHO ARE WE?

I thought I’d start off
with some great
examples…

BUT THAT’S NOT IMPACT?!?!

THE CUSTOMER
(BENEFICIARY) IS
ALWAYS RIGHT
HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN:
● Who is the consumer? Does the
design reflect the user characteristics?
● What is the consumer experience
about the product?
● Why does the consumer use this
product or design?
● ETC.
THE CUSTOMER (BENEFICIARY)
IS ALWAYS RIGHT
Human-centered Design
● Who is the customer? Does the
design reflect the user
characteristics?
● What is the customer experience
about the product?
● Why does the customer use this
product or design?

EXISTING IMPACT MEASUREMENT TOOLS
...and many, many more!

Golden rule of data
measurement:
data is only as useful as
the decisions and
ACTION it leads to
Don’t aim for perfection,
but for actionable data
→ be a learning
organization

WHAT IS THE POINT IN MEASURING IMPACT?
“Don’t just prove impact, improve it” -Acumen
→ Impact measurement modelling = product/service
development

THEORY OF CHANGE ≈ logic model ≈ impact model
● Commonly used term
● Theory of Change* defines long-term goals and then maps backward to
identify necessary preconditions (source: Wikipedia)
○ (1) in making the distinction between desired and actual outcomes,
and
○ (2) in requiring stakeholders to model their desired outcomes before
they decide on forms of intervention to achieve those outcomes.

Acumen’s take on THEORY OF CHANGE (ToC)
SOURCE: Making Sense of Social Impact: Acumen’s Building Blocks for Impact Analysis course on
NovoEd https://novoed.com/social-impact-2016-1

Define your target
customer or beneficiary
What unit makes most sense to work
with? E.g. individual, household,
classroom, community

Adapted from: Making Sense of Social Impact: Acumen’s Building Blocks for Impact Analysis course on NovoEd https://novoed.com/social-impact-2016-1

IMPACT
● What is the change you want to see in the world?
● What problem are you solving?
● Longer-term effect that can be attributed to the
product
● No clear line between outcome & impact
● E.g. solar lantern company: Increased income for
inhabitants of slum areas

OUTCOME
● The immediate benefits to customer for using the
product
● E.g. solar lantern company: more time for livelihood &
studying

ASSUMPTIONS between impact & outcome
● What does the customer do that leads to longer term
improvement over time?
● What could go wrong?
● E.g. solar lantern company: more time for livelihood &
studying → assumptions:
○ Solar lantern works at night
○ Solar lantern is used for productive purposes

OUTPUT
● Product / service being used at household / customer
level
● E.g. solar lantern company
○ Amount of lanterns in use of customers
○ Time customer uses lantern

ASSUMPTIONS between outcome & output
● How is the household using the product?
● What could go wrong?
● What has to be true about the output in order for the
outcome to occur?
● E.g. solar lantern company: assumptions
○ Lantern is used correctly
○ Lantern light is strong enough

INPUT
● Primary product / service offered by the organization
● Sometimes divided into input & activities
● E.g. solar lantern

ASSUMPTIONS between output & input
● What is assumed for the product to make it to the
customer to use?
● E.g. solar lantern company: assumptions
○ The sold lantern ends up being used
○ The sold lantern works

EVIDENCE REVIEW
Identify which pieces of the TOC need to
be verified through further evidence
review to gain clarity and prove you are
having impact
Test your assumptions - ask questions
that are...
Specific
Measurable
Understandable
Relevant
Framed
Consider what implications they have for
your current model

METRICS: a whole separate (important)
conversation
IRIS Metrics: list of generally-accepted
performance metrics http://iris.thegiin.org/metrics/list
Co-developed by the Rockefeller Foundation, Acumen and B Lab in early 2008. Managed
by the GIIN (Global Impact Investing Network) since 2009.
Select decision-oriented metrics
Prioritize metrics
Ask key questions: what, why, how, when, who?
Set performance targets
Iterate

WANT TO LEARN MORE?
● Making Sense of Social Impact:
Acumen’s Building Blocks for Impact
Analysis course on NovoEd https:
//novoed.com/social-impact-2016-1
○ Still available until April 20th!
● Acumen’s Lean Data initiative http:
//acumen.org/ideas/lean-data/
● Lean Data Approaches to Measure
Social Impact May 10, 2016 - June 8,
2016 https://novoed.com/lean-data
● Sign up for the Impactor mailing list at
www.impactor.fi & keep an eye out for
what we have planned on the topic

THANK YOU!
Please feel free to
stay, mingle &
continue the
discussion :)
saila.kokkonen@impactor.fi

Impact Meetup: Modelling your impact

Impact Meetup: Modelling your impact

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