Measuring Impact - Nicva
Measuring Impact - Nicva
Measuring Impact - Nicva
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Lessons learnt & guidance for future work 57<br />
Short-term<br />
Organisational<br />
Hard<br />
Intended<br />
Long-term<br />
Collective<br />
Soft<br />
Unintended<br />
Figure 8.1 – The dimensions of impact<br />
What worked 8.3<br />
One thing that worked well was that impact assessment was a process that contributed to<br />
capacity building. By using a participative approach we were able to align our aims with<br />
those of the major stakeholders, which meant they were willing to take part in the process.<br />
Bringing people together in focus groups promoted the development of inter-organisational<br />
working, reflective learning and strategic planning. Therefore, undertaking an impact assessment<br />
was potentially a very useful process.<br />
The experiences from these four studies can be translated into practical points for<br />
organisations embarking on impact measurement:<br />
• think of an organisation as part of a system or network, taking into account all<br />
stakeholders and activities carried out by the organisation.This will help to highlight<br />
“impactees”, and prevent you from thinking about the intended beneficiary group as the<br />
only people who are impacted on;<br />
• make use of existing tools where possible (adapting where necessary), and the basic<br />
common principles upon which existing tools are based.This will save time and effort<br />
trying to develop new ones;<br />
• if interviews are being used, keep the structure flexible, allowing unanticipated impacts to<br />
be uncovered;<br />
• use visual aids such as a network map which represents where the organisation sits in<br />
relation to its stakeholders.This is a useful prompt during interviews;<br />
• if appropriate,use research assistants from within the community as they will be more aware<br />
of the emotional experiences of certain stakeholders.<br />
• be realistic about what is to be achieved with the time and resources available;<br />
• to ensure that the impact analysis runs smoothly, try to keep everyone who is involved<br />
informed about what is happening and why the analysis is being carried out.