This article first published in Civil Society Magazine.
Most of the impact data charities gather does not help raise funds or improve performance
This opinion piece is a response to an article titled How do you measure the value of impact measurement? by David Ainsworth.
David’s article is actually mis-titled. It’s not a discussion of methods for measuring the
You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it every day
value of impact measurement, but rather stating a view that there may be none, which may explain why nobody seems interested in measuring it. I broadly agree with that. His article raises many points, so we’ll go carefully through them.
First, let’s be clear that “impact measurement” has two completely different purposes: first, helping to raise funds, and second, improving performance. Let’s consider them separately. Continue reading
much ‘impact research’ in the charity and social sectors (including monitoring and evaluation’) isn’t like that. Instead, we ask lots of questions, and answer them somewhat unreliably because resources won’t stretch to answering them all properly. The selection of questions which get answered is often driven by funders, rather than by what’s important operationally or unknown.
