Want to know you’re making a difference? Let’s build your impact model!

In an earlier post, I introduced the concept of “impact,” explain why it (increasingly) matters, and argued that you create an impact model for your efforts to make a meaningful difference in the world. Now, let me guide you through building your impact model! It is time you get that certainty over whether you are making the impact you target.

This post may also help you explain your efforts to your team and stakeholders. Whenever you “venture,” read project, organization, industry, cause, or whatever describes your effort to change the world for the better.

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Image credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

How does this post fit into Changemakers’ Substack?

Changemakers’ Substack is for everybody within the growing global community committed to perfecting the craft of creating big bold change. I post (a) actionable guidance on what might snag your efforts to make a meaningful difference in the world (this post), (b) world-leading research and debate on changemaking, and (c) my reflections on a life of a professional changemaker. While not all three may resonate with you, lean on the archive for what does, and I appreciate you sticking with me as we grow this community!

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What would you say in a future opening address?

One of my favorite ways to start somebody on an impact model is to have them draft a future opening address.

What would your venture’s leader (who may or may not be you) may deliver in three or five years when welcoming its core community to a major celebration (such as the venture’s anniversary).

I promise, this exercise will focus your mind on what an impact model means in practice!

You don’t have to be a PR guru (I am not!) to do this. Just follow my prompts and to get a first draft. I have no doubt you and your team will then whip it into something eye-opening! And I’m here to help if you need it.

Now, let’s break down the speech you wrote on the example of Pollinate Group.

Introducing a case study: Pollinate Group (2012-present)

Pollinate Group is an award-winning social enterprise serving the poorest of the poor in India and Nepal. Its mission is to empower women, as leaders of change, to lead their communities out of poverty and darkness through entrepreneurship that delivers sustainable products. I have since on Pollinate’s Board since its inception.

Elements of an impact model

While jargon may vary by industry/sector, an impact model includes these elements, illustrated on the example of Pollinate:

1. The problem.

• In itself a source of immense suffering, extreme poverty is particularly harsh on women and girls and drives adverse outcomes for both human health and the environment (e.g., using kerosine for cooking and lighting).

2. The activities.

• Outreach, recruitment, onboarding, training, coaching, microlending, etc. to help extremely disadvantaged women earn income through life-changing solutions.

3. Outputs.

• The number of women who start micro businesses, then the number who break through to the next income tiers.

• The number of solar lights, induction cooking stoves, or mosquito nets distributed.

4. Impact.

• Families lifted out of poverty.

• Communities taken to the next level, e.g. through women winning public office. Greenhouse gas emissions avoided.

5. Impact metrics. How will we measure the ultimate impact?

• Children completing school.

• Average household income sustained over at least two years.

• Women taking the next step, such as running for office or getting a good permanent job.

6. The baseline

In order to meaningful assess the difference our efforts make, we must know our starting point.

• What was the rate of school completion across our communities before we got involved?

• What was the average household income?

• How frequently did women step outside domestic roles?

Determining impact metrics

Start by considering how an external person — such as an investor or donor — would know if you were fulfilling your mission.

If KPIs (key performance indicators) is a term that’s familiar to you, think of impact metrics as KPIs.

Impact metrics are key precisely because in pursuit of that meaningful difference we set out to make, we will do a whole raft of things with innumerable people, at times heading down wrong paths and at other time, demonstrating genuine heroism. When set correctly, impact metrics are what allows us to know if all of that actually, truly matters in the end.

It can be helpful to align your impact metrics with common frameworks that the international community (including donors and investors) recognize. Two of the most used are:

1. UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): 17 goals with 230 indicators.

2. IRIS+ Metrics: A library of approximately 400 widely used metrics spanning activities, outputs, and impacts.

SoPact recommends the checklist below for determining whether an impact indicator is worth measuring:

• Mission critical: Is this indicator aligned to your mission statement?

• Realistic to measure: Is this indicator logistically manageable?

• Cost-effective: Is this data already collected and accessible, or otherwise cost-effective to collect?

• Reason for measuring: Is this primarily for your organization’s benefit or for reporting to an external entity?

• Impact: Does this indicator measure an outcome or impact of your intervention (rather than inputs, activities, or outputs)?

More likely than not, your team does not include an expert data analyst who is twiddling their thumbs. Not a problem, as I can almost guarantee there to be at least one government or nonprofit group focused on the problem(s) you are targeting. Identify who they are, get in touch, and make sure you are a recipient of their data.

Even with the abundance of off-the-shelf impact indicators, you may need to establish a new one. Nearly every recent project of mine has demanded a new metric. That is okay, just takes a bit more care to make sure it is still credible.

Establishing a baseline

What is the current record for the 100m dash? Marathon? Long jump? Athletic records are so rigid precisely to allow measurable improvement. One can’t claim to be faster today unless it is meaningfully compared to past performance.

Where it comes to impact, we — similarly — want to compare apples to apples, so to speak.

The sources and the data you discover while determining your impact metrics will likely allow you to set the baseline. It is okay you need to generalize or qualify, just state your assumptions (for example, the average household income for urban slums in in India is $x, therefore we assume that as a baseline for the specific communities we serve in x, y, and z states).

If you had to come up with a custom impact indicator, you may also have to take some tailored steps to establish your baseline. Perhaps a special project that qualifies for a grant and draws on volunteers or fellows. While I would never advise you to cut corners where it comes to measuring impact, don’t let the lack of neat data deter you from doing the work that compels you in the first place.

The myth of control and the power of influence

I couldn’t count the number of times I have heard that if we can’t control something, it’s not worth including in our impact assessment. However common, it is a dangerous misconception.

The idea that we have full control over any impact within a complex system is a myth I believe we need to stop perpetuating.

As I flagged during my explanation of systems theory (see an earlier post), it takes thinking of any single attribute of yours to dispel this myth. Can you pinpoint any one reason for your tenacity? Or creativity? Or an allergy? You can’t. Whether you thought about a quality of your character or a part of your body, they exist today because of countless innate and historic factors, most outside of your direct control. Let’s take your neck. You may be proud of its elongation, definition, and range of motion, but all three were predisposed by genetics, enjoyed a lifetime without a major injury, and perhaps benefited from thousands of dollars spent over decades on massage, yoga, gym, or physical therapy. Your entrepreneurial spirit is a product of every action that did not squash it as much as of the actions, encouragements, and opportunities that actively nurtured it.

Your parents did not have full control of how you turned out. No education system has full control over student outcomes. And no venture has full control over its impact beyond its walls. A focus on impact is about taking responsibility for the influence we have as much as it is about attentiveness, collaboration, and iteration.

In my work, I have found it useful to introduce sliding scales for each impact area. Assign — perhaps via a collaborative process — how much control your venture has over an impact. Even though your control is not going to be 100%, this exercise illustrates that it is not 0%, either. This may help leverage your agency constructively.

Sliding scales for assessing influence over targeted impact. Image credit: Elena Bondareva.

Your impact model will change

We’re in the business of change! So, every element of the impact model should be tracked over time. For example, if the problem changes — for the worst or the better — you will want to know and adjust. That is what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed 20 million additional people below the poverty level in India, where Pollinate operates, or when previously unnelectrified communities got connected to the grid. There was still plenty for Pollinate to do along its mission, but its model needed to adjust.

What if it takes years to see the impact we target?

If you’re ambitious enough, it will! Which is why the business and political cycles are often too short to see a meaningful difference. But I digress…

With Pollinate, we’re most interested in breaking the cycles of intergenerational poverty. For that, we ultimately want to know if the children of the women we serve today find themselves on a whole other rung of the socio-economic ladder. No matter our focus, it will take years before we can measure that! But even if it takes ten years to find out, that clock doesn’t start until you set that metric. So, don’t let the horizon deter you from measuring what matters! Set that indicator and establish that baseline. Start the clock! You’ll be there before you know it.

In the meantime, communicate that ultimate intention while telling the story of your activities (such as the number of programs you have run, and how satisfied the participants have been) and the outputs you are achieving in the short term.

Let’s recap!

Your impact model allows you to know — and communicate — whether you’re making the difference you target. To start, write that future keynote address, imagining the story you’d want to share. Then, use this post to deconstruct the elements until you can clearly state (1) the problem, (2) the activities, (3) the outputs, (4) the impacts, (5) the impact metrics, and (6) the baseline. Don’t be deterred if you can’t single-handedly control your impact indicators, or if they would take years to measure. Remember, impact is about progress and dialogue — with your team, your backers, and the broader world — about what goals are worth everything we’ve got.

You made it! You have an impact model.

Once you’ve taken all the steps above, you have a best-practice way of knowing if you’re actually making the difference you set out to make!

Your impact model is ready for a test drive. See how it sits with your team and your funders, refine as needed, and let me know your thoughts!