1. Towards Best Practice
Reana Rossouw
Next Generation Consultants
Measuring Impact and Return
2. What do we mean by best practice?
• Formalised approach/documented strategy
• Regular reporting and communication (internal &
external)
• Active Senior management/board involvement
• Alignment to core business and operational business
• Working in collaborative partnerships
• Dedicated CSI staff/team/ department/
foundation/Trust
• Scientific research – social baseline studies
• Regular stakeholder consultation and engagement
• Employee involvement and recognition
• Regular monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment
• Replication of successful projects
• Development of best practice guidelines
• Sharing lessons and insights
3. Why do we fail so spectacularly?
• Responding to local requests in an ad hoc manner
• Lack of professionalism and business rigor
• Insufficient focus on sustainability
• Limited understanding of the often complex local context
• A perception of “giving” rather than “investment” (Including
lack of clear objectives)
• Detachment from the business
• Insufficient participation and ownership by local stakeholders
• Provision of free goods and services
• No exit or handover strategy
• Overemphasis on infrastructure and under emphasis on skills
and capacity building
• Lack of transparency and clear criteria
• Failure to measure and communicate results
• Misconception that development work in neat funding cycles
5. What do we want to achieve?
• To provide evidence
• To demonstrate
performance
• To prove accountability
• To show program
effectiveness
• To demonstrate value
• To make a difference
• To contribute to a
community’s self-
sustainability
• To empower
• To alleviate poverty
6. The Big Issue / Idea
• If we call it investment –
there should be a
return
• If we call it
development – there
should be impact
• So how do we measure
impact and return?
7. Impact Value Chain
NEXT GENERATION
FOCUS
Input: Activities: Output: Outcome: Impact: Return:
Resources What the program The direct Benefits or What the short, What the
dedicated to or does with inputs products of changes for R medium and business
consumed by to fulfill its program beneficiaries E long term results achieved as a
the program mission activities during or after S are on all result of its
program U stakeholder investment
FACTORS activities L groups
T
S
Money, staff Feed and shelter Number of New knowledge, Access to new Increase in
and staff time, homeless classes taught, increased skills, infrastructure brand
volunteers and facilities, provide number of changed Decline in infant awareness and
volunteer time, job training, counseling attitudes or mortality reputation
facilities, educate the sessions values, modified Less Mitigate
equipment and public about signs conducted, value behavior, dependency on environ-mental
supplies, of child abuse, of educational improved grants, etc. impacts and
infrastructure, counsel pregnant materials conditions, risks
etc. women, create distributed, altered status, Recruitment of
mentoring hours of service etc. new talent and
relationships for delivered, skills, etc.
the youth, etc number of
participants
served, etc
13. Impact Assessment – HOW?
Also reviewed
Strategic Review
•Business Strategy
(CSI Strategy)
•Brand Strategy
•Operational Strategy
•Sustainability Strategy
•Human Resources
•Finance and Budgets
Operational •Technology
Review •Marketing & Communications
(CSI Management) •Governance
•Grantmaking Processes and Systems
•Stakeholder Engagement
•Research and Development
•Programme Design and Management and
Programme Implementation
Review •Partnerships
(Impact •Resources
Assessment) •Focus Areas – Flagship Programmes
14. Impact Value Chain - Our Formula
Hierarchy Inputs Outputs Outcome Impacts Returns
Definition Resources Goods and Expected changes Ultimate (long- Direct or indirect
invested (e.g. services in access, usage, term) effect of business
money, skills, generated by the behaviour or the intervention benefits/ value
etc.) use of inputs performance on a key generated by
(short-term) (medium-term) dimension of the activities/
development programs/
(e.g. living interventions
standards) (long-
term)
Qualitative Value of Number of % change – Students finding Number of
Indicators investment, schools, number access to health employment, graduates hired
number of hours, of volunteer, services, people with skills by company, %
number of books, number of education, finding change in
hours teachers, government employment grievance,
students infrastructure, complaints
pass rates received by
company
Qualitative Stakeholders Perceptions of Beneficiaries Quality of links to Changes in
indicators satisfaction with schools, reporting benefits local employment community /
the programme educators, and application of opportunities, customer/
learners, skills, education perceptions of employee
improved socio perceptions
economic status attributable
or opportunities directly/
indirectly to CSI
15. Impact Assessment Model
METHODOLOGY:
High Community The more beneficiary stakeholder
Impact
groups affected the greater the impact:
Within the stakeholder group, the more
impacts achieved the greater the impact
Other Beneficiaries / Community and return
Community Stakeholders Group 4 Impact 1
Impact
Beneficiaries / Community Community
Stakeholder Group 3 Impact 1 Impact 2
Communities Community Community Community
Stakeholder Group 2 Impact 1 Impact 2 Impact 3
Low community
Impact
Low Business Beneficiary Business Business Business High Business
Return Stakeholder Group 1 Impact/ Impact/ Impact Impact
Return 1 Return 2 Return 3
Business Impact/Return
16. Community
What we measure
Qualitative impact and return Quantitative impact and return
impact and
Business Return
Societal Value Higher levels of skills and education Level of education
Pass rate increases
University access
Graduation rates
Increased availability or accessibility to employment Applicability of skills to other jobs
Employment rate
Income generation
Improved health Reduction of lost work days
Cost of treating disease
Reduction in medical expenses
Greater economic resilience Wage growth per individual
Household wealth and disposable income
Contribution to GDP and tax
Distribution of wealth
Number of new businesses
Enhanced environmental quality Changes in health
Improved access to natural resources
Increased quality in natural resources
Business Value Increased revenue – new customers, new products, Market penetration, entry, new markets, price differentiation/
extended use of existing services premium, innovation, demographic changes
Reduced Costs and increased efficiency Decrease in production costs, operational costs, sales and marketing
costs, exposure, access to natural resources
Building intangibles – Improved customer Customer perception, survey, satisfaction – employee satisfaction,
perceptions, increased customer satisfaction, talent recruitment and retention, skills development, availability and
enhanced brand value, increased supplier quality of labour, media value and mentions, increased security of
relationships, added value to investors, increased supplies
employee recruitment, retention, satisfaction
Managing risk – reduced risk to the business, BBBEE credentials, licences, physical asset security, raw materials
reduced risk to the community – reduced regulatory security, enhanced stakeholder engagement and dialogue, reduction
risk, enhanced licence to operate in activism, boycotting, strikes, increased sales and tenders
18. Rand Water – Frances Vorweg - Impact across
economic, social and environmental aspects
19. Some stuff we have learnt
• Sponsorship, Donations and infrastructure
programs CAN deliver high impact and return
• Bursaries do NOT necessarily deliver high impact
and return
• ANY resources CAN be measured – books,
wheelchairs, buildings, time – cash and non-cash
• The same project can deliver varied results for
different funders – HIV & ME
• How and on what you spend the money (inside the
program) has a direct influence on the impact and
return
• The strategy and focus areas has to clearly define
the return and impact required
• Sustainability has to be clearly defined for exit and
completion
• Indicators have to be developed, agreed, and
documented as part of the contractual phase
• Internal monitoring and external evaluation
processes has to be established and adhered too -
Impact Assessment does not replace evaluation
and monitoring
• Impact can be measured over time as well as the
triple bottom line
20. Other important stuff…
• The type of service provider (NGO) and the level of service
provider (sophistication) does have an impact on the
outcome of the assessment
• You have to consider the impact of the impact assessment on
so many levels
– As a result of our work we can now categorically state that most
programs:
• Have only short term impact
• Those that have medium term impact are not necessarily sustainable
• The long term impact is mostly social or socio economic only as
opposed to economic impact which really contributes to
poverty alleviation!
• It is possible to determine impact and return
– And the real value lie in independent, verifiable, assurance of CSI
expenditure, program results, outcomes and impact
21. • We all have impact – but it is not
necessarily measurable and
sustainable impact What I now know…
– Do we want economic or social
impact?
– By implication social impact help
people right now – but may not help
them in the future – which renders
the project/our intervention
UNSUSTAINABLE
– Sometimes it is our own (CSI
Practitioner’s) fault we don’t have
higher impact as we decide what,
who and how to fund/not to fund
– The most sustainable
projects/programs with the highest
impact have social, socio economic
and ECONOMIC impacts i.e. the
number of jobs created
– Sometimes there is negative impact –
i.e. dependencies are created
– Mostly there is only short term
impact – again which makes our
interventions UNSUSTAINABLE
22. Towards Best Practice
• The Seven Principles • The Seven Stages
– Involve stakeholders – Establish the scope
– Understand what and identify the key
changes stakeholders
– Value things that – Map the outcomes –
matter identify the indicators
– Only include what is – Look for evidence
material – Establish the impact
– Do not over claim – Calculate the impact
– Be transparent – Report the outcome
– Verify the result – Share the learning
23. At the end of the assessment
• What do you want to know – Why?
• What do you want to do with the
information – Why?
• Do you know what the impact of the
impact assessment will be on:
– Your strategy
– Your CSI team
– The CSI beneficiaries
– The CSI programmes
• What if it is not good news?
24. At the end of the day
• There is no magic
formula
• It is not easy nor simple
• There is no one size fits
all approach
• There are many ways to
measure
• You will have to develop
your own formula
25. Above all else:
Measuring impact is important
Measuring the right things is difficult
Measuring impact is possible
26. What next?
• Impact Investment
Index: III
– Direct vs Indirect
Impact
– Intended vs
Unintended
Impact
– Levels of impact –
shallow, deep,
integrated –
weighting of
impact
• We are still looking
for more case studies
and guinea pigs!
27. Contact
• Reana Rossouw
• Next Generation Consultants
• Specialists in Corporate Sustainability and Integrated Sustainability as well Socio Economic
Investment and Development
• Tel: (011) 258 8616
• E-mail: rrossouw@nextgeneration.co.za
• Web: www.nextgeneration.co.za
• PLEASE NOTE: THIS PRESENTATION IS PART OF A LARGER BODY OF RESEARCH!
• THIS INFORMATION IS COPYWRITED AND THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF
NEXT GENERATION CONSULTANTS
