What do you do when your impact isn’t measurable?

It’s fantastic that the impact sector is taking evidence and measurement increasingly seriously. But I meet lots of organisations who say their impact is just too hard to measure. And they worry about this being a barrier to securing funding and investment.

How can you tackle this issue? Based partly on NPC’s recent work with The Chancery Lane Project, I can suggest four steps to start:

• Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
• Develop a compelling explanation of your impact
• Measure what you can – especially what’s most contentious
• Don’t prioritise measurement over the work

These lessons are based in part on NPC’s recent work with The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP), which helps organisations reduce emissions using the power of legal documents and processes. We supported TCLP to develop a new approach to measuring its impact.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good

There is often a most obvious, direct, and/or robust way to measure a programme’s impact. But this ‘best’ way is often not possible in practice.

What then? Keep your definition of impact measurement broad, and ask yourself: what’s the least imperfect way we could measure our impact? And is that better than not measuring it at all? Often the answer will be yes.

We recently worked with The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) to develop a new way to approach their impact. TCLP aim to help organisations reduce emissions through adding climate-aligned clauses to contracts. But how can they measure this, when those contracts are confidential and there are many other factors affecting emissions?

We recommended ways in which TCLP could strengthen their approach to asking organisations directly whether their new clauses have had an impact on emissions.

Obviously, self-reporting has its limitations. But it can provide a valuable overview of your impact where confidentiality limits other options. Particularly when you include both a survey component to get a statistical look at scale and a handful of in-depth case studies to explore how your work influenced thinking and decision-making.

Develop a compelling explanation of your impact

If robust evidence of your impact is hard to come by, the next best thing is a robust explanation of your impact. Ideally, this would be in the form of a theory of change.

Think of it like a CV – it doesn’t prove that you’re the right person for the job, but it makes as compelling a case as possible.

And don’t underestimate the value of bringing in external support for this. That expertise, experience, fresh pair of critical eyes, and role in leading the process can be invaluable.

The Chancery Lane Project already have a theory of change. But when we reviewed it, we thought it would benefit from diving more deeply into the core of what they deliver.

We identified the key assumptions underpinning each part of their argument, and started conducting deep dive discussions to interrogate and clarify them in full. For example, exactly how contractual clauses might (or might not) lead to reduced emissions.

Measure what you can – especially what’s most contentious

Take a look at your explanation of impact or theory of change. While there’s lots of things you can’t measure, focus on which parts of it you can measure.

Outcomes, assumptions, and ‘mechanisms’ are often easier to measure than impact. And taken together, they provide a robust package of theory and evidence that can make a very strong case for your impact. Especially if you focus your measurement on the weakest or most contentious parts of your explanation.

The Chancery Lane Project can rarely see exactly what organisations put in their contracts, due to commercial confidentiality. But they can measure the quality and ambition of the clauses they provide, through assessment by independent legal and environmental experts. And they can ask organisations whether and how they adapted those clauses for their contracts.

Understanding what you can measure will help you demonstrate your impact.

Don’t prioritise measurement over the work

It’s great that the sector is prioritising impact measurement, and wanting to be as confident as possible that its time and money is being well spent.

But we shouldn’t prioritise measurement to the extent that we’re reluctant to fund or deliver work whose impact is inherently hard to measure. Or to put it another way, don’t let ‘the tail wag the dog’.

Remember, the risk of failing to support impactful work is just as dangerous as the risk of supporting unimpactful work!

The most important thing is that funders and delivery organisations work together to evidence impact as robustly as possible, whatever that might mean in each individual context.

Approach it with confidence, and you might find that you’re more able to measure your impact than you thought.

Find out more about The Chancery Lane Project on their website.