Measuring Impact - Nicva
Measuring Impact - Nicva
Measuring Impact - Nicva
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Identifying & categorising the sector’s impacts 19<br />
In this chapter, an analysis of the impact reported by these organisations is presented. The<br />
description of types of impact across a range of organisations enables the identification of the<br />
overall impact of the voluntary sector. Furthermore, an analysis of the distribution of types of<br />
impact across the voluntary sector may help in the development of tools for investigating<br />
particular types of impact not addressed by the existing range of approaches.<br />
Methodology 4.2<br />
The study used a postal questionnaire comprising 16 questions. Respondents were asked to<br />
choose either their whole organisation or a single project and answer questions on:<br />
• the project or organisation’s aims;<br />
• inputs (people involved, funding, income, benefits in kind);<br />
• whether a needs assessment had been carried out prior to the work starting;<br />
• beneficiaries;<br />
• outputs and outcomes;<br />
• whether it was felt that the aims had been achieved;<br />
• the ‘wider or secondary benefit’ that resulted from the work;<br />
• whether any evaluation had been carried out.<br />
The questionnaire was piloted with six organisations and amended as necessary.<br />
Organisations were systematically sampled from a database of over 25,000 voluntary organisations<br />
operating in Wales, with initial telephone contact before sending the questionnaire. The<br />
return rate at this stage was too low to continue. The questionnaire was then sent to all of<br />
WCVA’s 800 member organisations, and a further 500 organisations randomly sampled from<br />
the database. This resulted in 101 responses. A further 60 case-studies of health and social care<br />
organisations were obtained from telephone interviews using the same questionnaire.<br />
All the responses were entered onto a database and a summary was produced for each casestudy<br />
which was then signed off by the organisation in question. The text of the summary<br />
was then analysed qualitatively using a colour coding method. Types of impact and outcomes<br />
were identified and categorised into four levels (individual, community, organisation or<br />
general) that were adapted from levels described for outcomes by the Edna McConnell Clark<br />
Foundation (2002). The distribution of these descriptors across different areas of voluntary<br />
activity was then analysed.