In a world that’s increasingly connected and accessible to all kinds of information, it’s sometimes difficult to differentiate between noise and stories worth sharing. The nonprofit sector is particularly sensitive to this struggle - in fact, we’re finding that in 2024, most nonprofits struggled to find predictable fundraising in an increasingly competitive environment.
How can we address these challenges? We need to invest more in identifying, measuring, and communicating evidence-based, impact oriented stories that show the transformative impact of our work.
Most importantly, nonprofits need to differentiate between results of a project vs. impact it has been able to generate.
Nonprofits can win more grants and secure more funding when they focus on impact because they’re able to convey why their work matters and how it impacts their community and Mission, beyond project updates, and why it’s crucial for donors and partners to continue to support that work.
At PhoenixFire Strategic Consulting, we’ve identified the most important metrics to highlight a nonprofit’s impact. Here are four key components to consider and why this difference matters:
1. Outputs vs. Outcomes
Outputs: These are the direct products or services delivered by the nonprofit. For example, the number of meals served, workshops conducted, or books distributed. They tend to be quantitative (measured in numbers) in nature, and can easily be assessed based on baseline vs. target when it comes to reporting progress.
While they report on existing project cycles, these are the types of data that if put to scale and replicated, can create the transformation impact we would hope to create.
Outcomes: These measure the change or benefits resulting from the outputs. This could be improved nutrition, better employment rates, or higher literacy levels among beneficiaries.
Outcomes should also speak to how livelihoods, communities, industries have transformed based on the non-profit’s interventions. It measures value and helps make the case for continued support for the nonprofits work.
Our Recommendation: Nonprofits should communicate more than just results of a specific project/program. Focus on outcomes in order to show your organization’s transformational impact and convey how your interventions align and deliver on your Mission.
2. Quantitative vs. Qualitative Measures
Quantitative Measures: These involve numerical data that can be counted and compared. For example, the number of people trained, funds raised, or communities served. Collecting this type of data can show potential for growth, how demonstrative effect can increase measurability and clear evidence on the kind of impact your programme aims for.
Qualitative Measures: These focus on the quality and depth of the impact, such as personal stories, feedback from beneficiaries, and case studies that illustrate the tangible differences made in individuals' lives. As part of any progress or result-based report, adding this component beyond numerical data will always help donors and partners understand the crucial nature of your work.
Our Recommendation: Nonprofits should look beyond data-driven, cyclical, numerical performance indicators in order to focus on how their interventions change livelihoods, barriers to entry, policies, and general landscape of their respective sector/industry. Quantitative metrics are important for reporting and transparency, but qualitative measures help you tell the story of your nonprofit’s impact.
3. Short-term vs. Long-term Impact
Short-term Impact: These are immediate effects that can be observed shortly after the intervention, like immediate relief from disaster aid, or semi-annual/annual educational achievements. This is usually easy to measure at the end of a project cycle, requires less cost to collect data, and can be comparable to similar interventions in the area/sector.
The key for this type of collection of outcomes is slow and steady - the positive effects are hard to see for short-term impact but consistency is what will create the transformation.
Long-term Impact: These refer to sustained changes over a longer period, such as community resilience, long-term educational improvements, and the overall economic well-being of communities. This requires sustained efforts and retroactive perspective to better articulate changes that are made to communities or societies, which factors worked for or against these actions and interventions, what were the challenges and opportunities, who were the stakeholders in the enabling environments, etc.
Our Recommendation: Many funders want to see a vision for long term, systemic change. Nonprofits should invest time and resources on assessing changes and transformation in order to capture the true value of their work. With this type of analysis, nonprofits can go from reactionary tactics to preventative strategy.
4. Reports vs. Stories
Reports: These are structured, formal documents that summarize the quantitative and qualitative data collected by the nonprofit. They often include statistics, charts, and evaluations that provide an overview of the organization’s performance. Reports tend to be cyclical in nature, can be developed fairly easily once a basic template or structure is established, and also serve as a form of record keeping on results.
Stories: These are personal narratives from beneficiaries (the people you serve), volunteers, or staff that bring the numbers to life. They highlight individual experiences and showcase the human aspect of the nonprofit’s work, making the impact more relatable and emotional for supporters.
This can be a crucial element of a communication strategy - to showcase real life stories, through surveys, videos, audio clips, interviews - the ability to put forward a human story instead of a progress report can convince donors and partners for continued investment in your work.
Our Recommendation: Nonprofits should strengthen communication strategies (in-house or outsourced) to enable innovation, creativity, and outreach to new audiences on their work in order to make the case for continued support for their work. Compelling stories are the key to gaining donors’ attention and support.
Communicating Value Conclusion
Understanding the difference between impact and results is crucial for nonprofits to measure their success accurately. By focusing on these four components, nonprofits can better articulate their achievements and communicate their programs' effectiveness.
Communicating value will help donors and partners feel confident donating their time and money, support advocacy efforts for their causes, and help contribute to larger, positive impact on the world.
Contact us today to learn how PhoenixFire can help your organization better strengthen its capacity on impact and ability to change the world, faster.
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