Ten tips for becoming an impact-led organisation

In January 2019, AKAS had the privilege of attending and partly facilitating a meeting of the Communications Directors of key international institutions, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation. In preparing for that meeting, we decided to address an issue that has been troubling us recently: we have noticed a widespread absence of frameworks for measuring impact, even among those presenting examples of best practice at industry conferences; a lack which has been borne out by research such as the 2016 US Forum One survey, which revealed some 71% of respondents not tracking impact metrics. To highlight the importance of impact measurement, drawing on AKAS’ own impact framework and experience as well as on wider research, we identified ten characteristics of institutions which are impact-led. We share them here. So if it’s your ambition to lead an impact-led organisation, these ten steps will help you on your way.

1: Have a clear mission. A mission is an organisation’s clearly articulated statement of why it exists. An impact-led organisation starts by articulating its mission and then encapsulates this in a pithy tagline. Unless an organisation knows why it exists, it will have little chance of driving any systematic impact.

2: Create a powerful narrative. Impact-led organisations develop a strong narrative about the work they undertake, highlighting their key challenge (the jeopardy they face), as well as how the organisation is working to overcome this. A clear and powerful narrative helps to convey the direction that an organisation is heading in, using language that is accessible to the public and experts alike.

3: Ensure senior-level backing. If an impact strategy is to be successfully embedded across an organisation’s activities, it is critical that impact-led thinking is embraced at the most senior level. Without overt support from senior teams, an impact-led approach is unlikely to take root, given the innovative, resource-heavy and disruptive nature of impact measurement.

4: Use a comprehensive impacts framework. Any organisation which is serious about introducing an impact-led approach must measure the impact of all its activities systematically, dedicating resources to capturing not only basic input and output metrics and those relating to short-term outcomes in terms of reach and engagement, but also real world impact metrics and ultimate impacts. A comprehensive impacts framework (in communications) would measure these five key types of metrics.

5: Engage with your audiences. Impact-led organisations understand the needs, hopes, dreams and challenges of their key target audiences and ultimate beneficiaries. Understanding audiences in this way is also key to accountability and to anchoring impact in the real world.

6: Target the right audience. It is vital to tailor content to the right audience through the right channels if an organisation is to achieve any impact that involves a shift in awareness, attitudes and/or behaviours.

7: Provide accessible, emotionally engaging content. The quality of the content is of paramount importance in achieving impact in terms of shifting awareness, attitudes or behaviours. While content which communicates in a simple and direct manner is more likely to achieve an impact than content which is full of technical jargon, the most important factor in securing impact lies in content being emotionally engaging.

8: Be smart and creative in how you measure impact. The subjective nature of shifting mindsets and behaviours makes it hard to measure impact. Tracking real world impacts therefore requires creativity and a willingness to experiment with new approaches to data collection (e.g. propensity score matching; network analysis) which go beyond the standard outcome metrics of clicks and unique users to develop more sophisticated approaches.

9: Produce regular and timely reporting. Impact-led organisations track their performance and impact regularly. It is only by doing this that they can identify meaningful patterns and use insights concerning impact to drive their strategy, which in turn will enable them to fulfil their mission. The more regularly an organisation tracks its real-world impact, the more likely it is to be able to respond to and adjust its impact strategy, leading to better performance.

10. Employ a disciplined approach to campaigning/behavioural interventions. Impact-led organisations adopt a disciplined approach to campaigning, reiterating the same few messages over a period of years to achieve awareness and impact. They are clear about their campaign objectives, their target audiences, the messages they wish to push out, the channels they wish to use and, importantly, how they plan to evaluate the success of their campaign/interventions in terms of real world/ultimate impact.

These ten characteristics have been compiled from AKAS’ analysis of a broad spectrum of organisations across the commercial and not for profit sectors, ranging from the OECD to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For examples of organisations that excel in each characteristic and to read the full AKAS article from which these excerpts are taken, please visit: https://www.akas.london/article/10-characteristics-of-impact-led-organisations. 

For more information, email co-directors Luba Kassova  or Richard Addy on [email protected] or [email protected]