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    Impact Measurement

    Impact measurement is defining the outcomes a business creates, instrumenting the data behind them, and reporting them in the format foundations, impact funds and development finance institutions require.

    The baseline problem is real and largely unfixable after the fact. (read where we wrote it)

    Part of the Impact Finance & Strategy practice

    Mainly for

    12 to 20Impact metrics one business needs, out of hundreds

    When is impact evidence won or lost?

    Mostly at the start, before anyone asks for it. A baseline not taken in the first months cannot be taken later, and the first report sets the standard every later year is read against.

    The bigger the circle, the more of the evidence is settled at that step.

    1. The outcomes

      What will be measured, how it is counted and against what starting point, agreed with the funders who will read it.

      Capital Roadmap Diagnostic

    2. The baseline

      What things looked like before you arrived. Taken early, it shows a change. Missed, it can never be recovered.

    3. The data

      Impact numbers collected from daily work in sales, operations and people, not from a survey nobody runs twice.

      MIS

    4. The first report

      Built to the funder's own template, checked and corrected before anyone relies on it. Every later year is read against it.

    5. Every year after

      The same definitions and the same rhythm as the month-end close, for as long as the money stays invested.

      Impact reporting never ends

    What will a funder ask you to measure?

    The outcomes defined, the data collected as the work happens, and the report written the way funders read it.

    How we work

    Founders treat impact measurement as a hurdle at the door, something to get past to close the round. It isn't. It is a discipline that never ends.

    Sriram Chidambaram, in The Capital Most Founders Never See

    Where next in Impact Measurement?

    Impact Measurement pages

    • How we workAgree the outcomes before the first report

      We agree the outcomes and baselines first, with the funders who will read them, and collect the data from daily work. We check the first report against each funder's template, and after that reporting runs with the monthly close.

    • InsightsInsights on proving impact

      An impact claim is only as good as the evidence under it, and our team's writing starts there.