Doing good, better – why we all need to get better at measuring impact

Last week the Government announced the establishment of a new Social Investment Agency. ??

To catch you up, the new agency isn’t an entirely new construct, but it does signal the Government’s desire to take a closer look under the hood of the many (many) social services it funds, with a clear focus on measuring impact.??

It seems to me that the intent of getting better bang for buck - compelling organisations to measure their mahi and to use this data to make decisions and get better outcomes – is a good one.?

Measuring social impact can be incredibly complex, but it's also incredibly important if we want to achieve sustainable change that is grounded in evidence.?

After all, providing 1000 hours of good stuff means nothing if it’s not the right sort delivered to the right people at the right time.?

Unfortunately, superficial metrics like this are often bandied around in the sector and on some level, I get it – there's an inherent goodness to all of this work and questioning it is uncomfortable. ?However, we need to focus on outcomes rather than outputs. ?

At Cancer Society Waikato/Bay of Plenty, we have spent the best part of a year flipping our front-line database from measuring and reporting activities to taking a patient-centred view so we can show impact. ? The process has been laborious and full of gremlins, such as uncovering a surprising number of clients aged over 120 years!?

We still have a long way to go but we take measuring impact incredibly seriously.?

We do it because sailing blind won’t get us to where we want to go and with limited funds, we just must put our energies into the stuff with the biggest yield. It's accountability 101. ?

We do it because while busy work and status quo feels safe and familiar, crossing our fingers and hoping it hits the spot isn’t sustainable.?

We owe to our donors after all.??

We also owe it to the 2000+ volunteers in our region who freely give us their time.??

?When we provide indisputable evidence of how their generosity and hard mahi has translated into positive impact for people in their communities, everybody wins.??

So, bring it on, I say.??

Helen Carter

Chief Executive, Waikato/Bay of Plenty Cancer Society