Nonprofits and other grantee program organizations have a hard fought impact on the world. Behind the effort, fueling that work, social impact is driven by funders. But if someone were to ask your foundation, ‘what is your impact?’ Would your answer be able to go beyond stories from the field and general output numbers? Lean Impact Measurement is a data-driven process for impact measurement and assessment developed by SoPact, social impact consultants, and a research team out of the University of Melbourne. This four step guide combines technological expertise tailored to the unique needs of the social sector with social impact expertise. From offline mobile data collection to metrics selection, Lean Impact Measurement’s framework intends to be actionable for realistic implementation. The methodology is inspired from lean startup movement and supported by a technology that helps streamline process in a short time. So what’s your impact? Drive crucial grant impact conversation.

1. I M P A C T C O N V E R S A T I O N S F O R F O U N D A T I O N S :
L E A N I M P A C T M E T H O D O L O G Y
&
T U R B O M E T R I C S S O F T W A R E P L A T F O R M

2. WHO WE ARE
SoPact is a technology social
enterprise that aims to bring for-
profit tech expertise to the social
sector.
We do this through our
TurboMetrics software platform,
Impact Lab technology services,
and our open sourced Lean
Impact Measurement process.
www.sopact.com

3. OUR INDUSTRY CARES ABOUT
RESULTS OF PROGRAMMING,
BUT WE ARE NOTORIOUS FOR
MEASURING ALMOST
EXCLUSIVELY FOR ACTIVITIES.

4. Leads to a lack of OUTCOME-ORIENTED metrics
and limited time for evaluation.
LIMITED DATA CAPACITY OF FUNDERS
WHY IS THAT?
LIMITED DATA CAPACITY OF GRANTEES

5. IMPACT MANAGEMENT
OUTCOME-ORIENTED metrics
lead to strategic insights.
Impact Management
focuses on the RESULTS of
our impact efforts -- also
known as OUTCOMES.

6. BARRIERS TO IMPACT
MANAGEMENT
CULTURAL
BARRIERS
Barriers to innovating
social sector's
established behaviors.
COLLABORATION
BARRIERS
Barriers to capacity
building between
funders and funded
organizations.
SYSTEM
BARRIERS
Barriers to improving
infrastructure of grant
system.

7. CULTURAL
BARRIERS
STATUS QUO OF
INTERNAL OPERATIONS
Reluctance or lack of time to innovate
current impact management process
Inflated importance of impact narratives
Attribution of impact hinders collective
impact

8. COLLABORATION
BARRIERS
Lack of capacity building and impact
conversations leaves gaps in the
foundation of an organization's impact
management process. This causes a
need for third-party evaluation.
Third party evaluation should only be
used when concerned about fraudulent
reporting.

9. SYSTEM
BARRIERS
The current grant management system
is designed for evaluation of single
projects rather than collaborative
systems changes.
The current survey-led approach is not
designed for real-time output data
collection.
Grant recipients vary in technology
and data capacity. This makes an in-
depth standard impossible.

10. SYSTEM
BARRIERS
COLLABORATION
BARRIERS
CULTURAL
BARRIERS
REQUIRES
ORGANIZATIONAL
INTENTION
REQUIRES MORE
THOROUGH IMPACT
CONVERSATIONS
REQUIRES
ENHANCED DATA
CAPACITY

11. ORGANIZATIONAL INTENTION
Impact Management requires
dedicated time, resources, and
thought. It is a deeply personal
project for an organization.

12. IMPACT CONVERSATIONS
Impact Conversations are a capacity
building exercise within an organization
and between partners to achieve
alignment on metrics, reporting
practices, and impact objectives.

13. DATA CAPACITY
Data Capacity is supported by the
tools you use to collect, aggregate,
and evaluate your impact data. By
improving data capacity, reporting
data is made easier with minimized
human error.

14. L E A N I M P A C T
M E A S U R E M E N T
TurboMetrics
by SoPact
by SoPact and the
Asia Pacific Social Impact Centre

15. D A T A - D R I V E N I M P A C T M A N A G E M E N T
S O F T W A R E F O R M I S S I O N - D R I V E N
O R G A N I Z A T I O N S .
TurboMetrics
by SoPact

16. A S T E P - B Y - S T E P G U I D E F O R M I S S I O N -
D R I V E N O R G A N I Z A T I O N S E S T A B L I S H I N G
T H E I R O W N D A T A - D R I V E N I M P A C T
M A N A G E M E N T P R O C E S S .
L E A N I M P A C T M E A S U R E M E N T

17. LEAN IMPACT
MEASUREMENT
Pre-Work
Step One
Step Two
Step Three
Step Four
Metrics Discovery
Data Collection
Strategy
Data Collection
Demonstrating
Impact

18. PRE-WORK
Mission, Vision, Goals
Organizational Structure
Define Outcomes
Theory of Change
Impact Conversations

19. PRE-WORK | ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
outcome
outcome
outcome
organization
name
program
area ONE
program
area TWO
outcome
outcome
outcome
outcome
reports
data
reports
data
reports
data
reports
data
reports
data
reports
data
reports
data
reports
data

23. PRE-WORK | THEORY OF CHANGE
“A theory of change is the empirical basis underlying
any social intervention —for example, the belief that a
young person’s close relationship with adult role models
can reduce his susceptibility to violence, or that regular
visits by registered nurses to first-time pregnant women
can improve parenting skills and children’s outcomes.”
Paul Brest, The Power of Theories of Change (SSIR 2010)

24. PRE-WORK | THEORY OF CHANGE
"Theory of Change defines long-term goals and then maps
backward to identify necessary preconditions.”
Wikipedia

25. PRE-WORK | THEORY OF CHANGE
Template from the Microsoft Partners in Learning:
The Middle East and North Africa Forum

26. PRE-WORK | THEORY OF CHANGE
Template from Degrees of Change

27. PRE-WORK | THEORY OF CHANGE
Template from Development Impact & You (DIY)

28. PRE-WORK | THEORY OF CHANGE
outcome:
outputs: activities: inputs:
Increased student engagement in the classroom
Participation rate
Homework
completion
Attendance
Teacher trainings
Curriculum
development
Engaging
classroom
activities
Parent
engagement
Parent
engagement
events and
materials
Workshop
materials
Classroom
materials

29. PRE-WORK | THEORY OF CHANGE
outcome:
outputs: activities: inputs:
Increased student engagement in the classroom
Participation rate
Homework
completion
Attendance
Teacher trainings
Curriculum
development
Engaging
classroom
activities
Parent
engagement
Parent
engagement
events and
materials
Workshop
materials
Classroom
materials

31. STEP ONE
Measure what matters
Know your reporting
objective (audience; purpose)
Are there standards you want
to align with?
Keep track of Outputs and
Outcomes
Keep track of Quantitative and
Qualitative metrics
METRICS DISCOVERY

32. THEORY OF CHANGE MEASURE WHAT MATTERS
outcome:
outputs: activities: inputs:
Increased student engagement in the classroom
Participation rate
Homework
completion
Attendance
Teacher trainings
Curriculum
development
Engaging
classroom
activities
Parent
engagement
Parent
engagement
events and
materials
Workshop
materials
Classroom
materials

33. METRICS DISCOVERY | MEASURE WHAT MATTERS
Mission Critical?
Realistic?
Cost Effective?
Validated Metrics
Well defined - Cut back on
likelihood of human error in
reporting

34. United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs)
Guidestar | Robinhood | Many More
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) | Many More
IRIS
Health & Wellness | Women Empowerment | Etc.
METRICS DISCOVERY | STANDARDS
Global Goals
Nonprofits
Sustainability
Impact Investing
Domain Specific

39. STEP TWO | DATA COLLECTION
STRATEGY
IMPACT
CONVERSATIONS
Know current data
tools & define budget.
WHO IS
REPORTING DATA
Know who will be
reporting the data.
DATA
PIPELINE
What is the flow of the
data?

40. DATA STRATEGY | IMPACT CONVERSATIONS
currentdata
collection&
aggregationtools.
IT
partners
program
managers
missing tools and
available budget.

41. DATA STRATEGY | IMPACT CONVERSATIONS
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Online/Offline data collection
Data Verification: Self-reported; third party;
system audited (like Blockchain)
Survey Based data reporting vs. Manually
inputted data reporting
UNDERSTAND CURRENT DATA PIPELINE -
DISCUSS WHETHER IT REQUIRES ITERATIONS.

42. DATA STRATEGY | DATA PIPELINE
METRIC
METRIC
SOURCE
WHO IS
REPORTING
HOW IS DATA
SENT?
AGGREGATED
DATA

43. DATA STRATEGY | DATA PIPELINE
METRIC
SOURCE
METRIC
WHO IS
REPORTING
AGGREGATED
DATA
PERCENTAGE OF
HIGH SCHOOL
EQUIVALENCY
HOLDERS WHO
COMPLETE A YEAR OF
COLLEGE
REGISTRAR'S
OFFICES
EDUCATION
PROGRAM
COORDINATOR
HOW IS DATA
SENT?
ONLINE FORM
(TurboMetrics)
TurboMetrics

44. DATA STRATEGY | TOOLS
Online Data
Collection
Offline Data
Collection
Cloud-Based
Integration
Data
Aggregation
TurboMetrics | Salesforce | Quickbooks
Netsuite | Intacct | Airtable
Twilio | Magpi | Socialcops | Excel
Workato | Zapier
TurboMetrics | Salesforce | Quickbooks
Netsuite | Intacct | Airtable | Excel

48. STEP THREE
Benchmark Data
Make it Simple
Engage Stakeholders
Iterate
DATA COLLECTION

49. BENCHMARK DATA
WHAT DATA IS ALREADY OUT THERE?
School Systems; Government websites;
International agencies...

50. MAKE IT SIMPLE
AUTOMATION
Cloud-based integration can be automated in
some circumstances.
LESS IS MORE
The fewer times data is manually entered, the
better. The tools you use can make this possible.

51. ENGAGE & ITERATE
KEEP IMPROVING
Pay attention to your data pipeline and the
people reporting the data along the way.
Improved user experience for those reporting
the data will make your process more
sustainable and accurate.

52. STEP FOUR
Audience
Purpose
Best Practices
Report/Story Types
DEMONSTRATING
IMPACT

53. IMPACT REPORTING | BEST PRACTICES
Clarity: coherent narrative that connects aims,
plans, activities, and results
Accessibility: Relevant information can be
found by anyone who looks for it
Transparency: Reporting is full, open, and
honest
Source: Principles of good impact reporting for charities and social
enterprises, 2012

54. IMPACT REPORTING | BEST PRACTICES
Accountability: Reporting connects to the
stakeholders to tell them what they need to
know
Verifiability: Claims about impact are
backed up
Proportionality: The level of detail reflects
the size and complexity of the organization
Source: Principles of good impact reporting for charities and social
enterprises, 2012

55. WAYS TO DEMONSTRATE IMPACT
IMPACT REPORT: FUNDERS
A DATA-DRIVEN REPORT DESIGNED TO DEMONSTRATE IMPACT TO FUNDERS.
INCLUDES STORIES FROM THE FIELD, METRICS SUMMARY RESULTS,
VISUALIZATION AND PROGRAM SUMMARY.

56. WAYS TO DEMONSTRATE IMPACT
DATA DRIVEN STORY: PUBLIC & DONORS
A COLLECTION OF INFOGRAPHICS AND OTHER VISUALIZATION
METHODS FOR QUICK VIEW EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS.

57. WAYS TO DEMONSTRATE IMPACT
VISUALIZATION: PUBLIC & DONORS
DYNAMIC INTERACTIVE DEMONSTRATION FOR AWARENESS AND
EDUCATION.

58. WAYS TO DEMONSTRATE IMPACT
DASHBOARD: MANAGEMENT
DYNAMIC DATA VISUALIZATION FOR MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS.

59. LEARNINGS
GRANT MANAGEMENT IMPACT MANAGEMENT
- ORGANIZATIONAL INTENTION
- IMPACT CONVERSATIONS
- ENHANCED DATA CAPACITY
Dedicated time, resources, and thought to moving towards
outcome-oriented data-driven impact evaluation
Capacity building exercises around logistics of data capacity
internally and between partners.
Build a well-validated and sustainable data pipeline.

60. T H A N K Y O U
U N M E S H S H E T H | U N M E S H @ S O P A C T . C O M
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