Charities: The importance of measuring impact
The operating environment for charities is more challenging than ever, with increasing regulation, falling income and increasing costs, all intensified by greater online scrutiny.
In an age of accountability and transparency, and against a backdrop of falling public trust, there is a strong need to provide feedback to show donors the impact of their contributions.
Our report, Putting your impact at the core of your charity’s purpose, highlights the importance of measuring impact to improve strategic and operational decision making.
Key messages
- Measuring impact is an important way to persuade or communicate with donors, and to demonstrate accountability to stakeholders.
- Measuring impact also helps organisations improve strategic and operational decision making.
- Charities are not always successful in articulating their mission in a concise and measurable way.
- Any performance measurement system needs a clear strategy statement detailing not only what the charity intends to do, but also what it decides not to do.
- Consider measurement needs during strategy development, focusing on a limited set of clearly articulated questions.
- The failure of charities to report on their impact has created a deficit gap which is being filled by flawed commentary focusing on cost and expenditure ratios.
For further information and to discuss impact and your charity, please contact, Naziar Hashemi, Partner and National Head of Non Profits at Crowe.
