Social impact is the change an organization’s activities produce in people’s lives and communities. That change can be positive or negative, intended or unintended, short-term or lasting. For NGOs, social enterprises and their funders, being precise about what social impact means is the first step toward measuring and communicating it credibly.

Activities, Outputs, Outcomes and Impact

  • Activities are what the organization does: running training sessions, distributing kits, providing advice.
  • Outputs are the direct products: people trained, kits delivered, sessions held.
  • Outcomes are the changes for participants: new skills used, income gained, health improved.
  • Impact is the longer-term, wider change those outcomes contribute to, often shared with other actors.

Many reports describe outputs and call them impact. The distinction matters because funders increasingly ask what changed, not only what was delivered.

The Five Dimensions of Impact

The Impact Management Project’s five dimensions offer a useful way to describe impact: what outcome occurs and how important it is to people; who experiences it and how underserved they are; how much change occurs, in scale, depth and duration; what contribution the organization made compared with what would have happened anyway; and what risk exists that impact will differ from expectations.

Measuring It Credibly

Credible measurement rests on a few basics: clear outcomes defined in advance, a baseline, indicators collected consistently, a mix of numbers and participants’ own accounts, and honesty about the limits of what the data shows. Aligning indicators with recognized frameworks such as IRIS+ and the UN Sustainable Development Goals makes results easier for funders to compare.

Describing It Honestly

Social impact is rarely caused by one organization alone. Describing your contribution, rather than claiming full credit, and pairing key numbers with real stories told with consent, makes impact communication more trustworthy.

Impactedia’s Impact Measurement, Management, and Communication Framework (IMMCF) brings measurement and communication together, and is interoperable with IRIS+, the IMP 5 Dimensions, the IFC Operating Principles, the UN SDGs, Impact Frontiers Norms, GRI Standards and SROI.