Publishing your report is not the end of the process. We ventured on our impact assessment journey to have impact!
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Here we share some tips loosely based on Inspiring Impact’s top tips and Europeana’s experiences.
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1. Learn from your data and design better programmes and services
As you have been going through the data and writing your impact narrative, you have probably collected a series of recommendations on what you can do better next time. If yes, this is great! If not, consider going back through the data and your interpretation. What does the data tell you about how successful the activity was in achieving the goals set out in your change pathway? How could it be more successful?
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Systematising how you learn from and use your data is difficult, but one thing is key: communication. Sharing the findings and recommendations in the right way can make all the difference. We’ve learned that when sharing the reports, you can’t expect everyone to read everything. The author or the person who commissioned the report has to proactively summarise and share the relevant materials with the relevant audiences.
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2. Think about bigger impact questions
You might find that your impact assessment is raising bigger questions, like ‘how do we measure organisational impact as well as the impact of individual projects?’. That’s what happened for us in Europeana, and we have started to work on a Europeana Initiative theory Theory of changeChange.
What is a theory of change?
A theory of change is an illustration of how to achieve impact at a strategic level. It has elements of the change pathway that we use in Phase one, but it can capture more complexity. We can work backwards from the goal we want to achieve to the conditions that are necessary to achieve it. We can map different conditions and pre-conditions for impact. It can show loops and connections between different areas of change more than the linear change pathway can. It can help you spot risks, assumptions and limitations in the change you anticipate to have. You can also develop a parallel ‘theory of action’ whereby your activities are directly linked to the change you want to have. A theory of change can help to bring together a number of project areas or activities to show the bigger impact you wish to have.
Importantly, a theory of change should be co-designed with your colleagues and stakeholders. It is a useful process that helps align expectations and vision. It’s also collaborative, involving workshops, discussion and validation. A theory of change can also become a living, breathing document: it can change as your organisation and the wider social and economic context change.
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3. Advocacy - use what you have learned to inspire better decision-making and policy
Advocacy is when you influence policy decisions or represent, encourage or mobilise others, through lobbying, campaigning, education and capacity building. Impact assessment is a key tool to provide evidence for advocacy, as advocacy should be informed by an in depth perspective of the issues involved.
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This guide published by Europa Nostra: Awareness Raising for Heritage Civil Society Organisations.
You can also see this guide by the International Federation of Library Associations on Libraries and the Sustainable Development Goals: a Storytelling Manual.
You can also read Arts Council England’s ‘Make the case for art and culture’ resource section. The latter identifies three core audiences and provides guidance regarding advocacy campaigning for each one: social media, the wider traditional media and policy-makers (e.g. politicians).
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4. Improve on the methods you have already tested
You’re now an Impact Playbook pro. You’re beginning to build an evidence base. Where do you go next? What methods would you use again, what would you do differently and what methods might you have to explore for a deeper or longitudinal understanding of your impact?
It’s important to reflect and see if anything was missing from your data, and how you might address this in future. Are you missing any perspectives, e.g. from certain audience groups? What does the data not tell you and what might you need to do differently in future?
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5. Start to embed impact assessment
At Europeana, we’ve been working for several years to embed impact assessment. We have identified the following challenges that you might also find on your journey:
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See more about what we share about embedding impact assessment in Phase four. 🔽
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Finally, congratulations for getting this far in your impact journey! We hope that you’ve learned a lot in the first three phases of the Impact playbook. We’d love you to tell us about your experience so far! You can keep learning by completing Phase four, where you’ll evaluate your impact assessment. |