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Teaching Note
In the Measures of Good project, run by ARVO, the aim was to provide the best tools to measure societal impact. The project developed the impact chain which in itself is not a tool that would measure impact directly but is a great way to develop, plan and evaluate the social impact of an organisation.
The Impact Chain of Measures of Good – create your own
In the Measures of Good project, run by ARVO, the aim was to provide the best tools to measure societal impact. The project developed the impact chain which in itself is not a tool that would measure impact directly but is a great way to develop, plan and evaluate the social impact of an organisation.
IMPACT
SOCIETAL NEED
VISION OUTCOMES GOAL(S) ACTIONS RESOURCES
When using the impact chain one must carefully think of each of the pieces and then write down the answers to at least these questions: societal need
vision
goal(s)
resources
What societal challenge are we talking about? What is the risk of exclusion in question? Who does it touch?
What is our overall aim? What has changed when the need in question has been met?
What kind of changes in target groups’ lives are we aiming at? What results must there be in order to enable the vision?
What are the resources needed to reach the goals? Where is the investment targeted?
actions
outcomes
impact
What actions are the resources used for? How much, what, to whom? How and why are these actions leading to changes in target groups’ lives?
What are the outcomes of the actions? What has changed in target groups’ activities? What are the metrics to prove the changes?
What do he reached outcomes mean in the long run compared with the original need? What are the financial and wellbeing outcomes and to whom?
Teaching question Choose an organisation that aims to have societal impact. Then write down the impact chain of that organisation using the questions above.
Other teaching points: How could the Icehearts model be scaled? Icehearts is now partly philanthropy, partly social business. How could it be transformed to business that would not depend on donations?
