Starting to measure your impact

This page and the webpages linked below are designed to help you take your first steps into measuring, understanding, and improving your impact.

Take your first steps into impact practice

The cycle of good impact practice defines what impact practice is and articulates a clear path to success. We recommend working your way through the cycle, starting here or by using the navigation tab above.

This follows a four-step cycle:

• Plan: Plan how to create the desired impact
• Do: Measure your performance against key goals
• Assess: Make sense of the data you collect
• Review: Communicate the results, and learn how to improve your work

We recommend working your way through the cycle, starting here. You may also find the following resources valuable:

• Data diagnostic questionnaire—Complete this free and simple questionnaire to receive a tailored report on what data to collect and how.
• Jargon buster—Look up new words in this glossary to help you navigate impact practice.
• The code of good impact practice—Get to know the eight principles that underpin good impact practice.

What is impact practice?

These pages are designed to encourage good impact practice through clear and practical guidance.

Impact practice encompasses all the activities you do to focus on impact and learn how to best serve the people you support.

This means planning what difference you want to make; collecting the right information to know if you’re achieving your goals; assessing what impact you’re having; and learning and adapting your work.

It’s what an organisation does to plan, understand, communicate, and improve the difference it makes in the world.

These webpages have been adapted from the Inspiring Impact programme, which ran from 2011 until early 2022 and supported voluntary organisations to improve their impact practice. More information about the Inspiring Impact programme.