Measurable Impact: A Sustainability Requirement for Nonprofits

Without a doubt, nonprofits are run by passionate people committed to their cause. But many of these passionate people believe something that isn't true. They believe the impact of their work is obvious to themselves, their donors and the broader community. They mistake activity for impact. In fact, for many years major donors would accept activity as a demonstration of impact.

For example, a human service nonprofit would report a 20% increase in clients served. Both they and their donors would accept the increase in clients served as greater impact. But the activity (serving clients) is an output and not an outcome.

Outputs include things like number of workshops held, number of volunteers trained, field work completed, houses built, etc. While outcomes demonstrate the impact of the nonprofit’s work in terms of measurable and lasting effect. In other words, outputs are how you get to outcomes (impact).

 

Output-focused funding is generally a thing of the past. Today's donors are outcome-focused.

Nonprofits that follow an outcome-focused approach will:

• have greater impact,
• demonstrate their impact quantitatively,
• secure more support, and
• experience sustainability and growth. 

The outcome-focused organizations determine anticipated outcomes for each program and service and develop methodologies for tracking activates and gathering data that measures impact toward the anticipated outcomes.

Steve Mariotti, founder of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, offers great tips for measuring impact in his two-part article: Is Your Nonprofit Making an Impact? Prove It!

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