Social Innovation W5

Measuring and Improving Social Impacts: A Guide for Nonprofits, Companies and Impact Investors; " Although budgets, fundraising, and efficiency are important, social impact is the new bottom line for the social sector. "

How to know when you've had impact:

Know your mission, Measure the right thing, Measure it well

*REMEMBER use a mission statement in eight words with a verb, a target population or setting, and an outcome to measure.

Microfinance assumed that those that paid off their loan were better off but 25% were worse off. Around 50% were slightly better off but generally no better off. So only 25% of those that took out a loan got out of poverty.

*REMEMBER is it needed?

does it work?

Will it get to those that need it?

Will they use it right?

Creating awareness, empowering somebody, changing attitudes--those aren't real impacts. They may be necessary steps on the path to impact but they don't tell you where that path was supposed to end up. Second, a good mission statement is about the what not the how.

>Razor sharp clarity about where you're going allows you to ask three critically important questions:

1. Is this the best way to get there?

2. Is there anything else we should be doing to accelerate along the path?

3. Is everything we're doing really focused on getting there?

With a good eight-word mission, you can bypass all that input-output-outcomes stuff and cut to the chase with a simple question: “How would I best know if I’m fulfilling my mission?” (We at the Mulago Foundation like to ask people, “If you could measure only one thing, what would it be?”