1. Why should an impact investor measure the impact of their project portfolio?
For an impact investor (Foundation, endowment fund…), impact measurement allows transitioning from a window-counter logic (expense tracking) to a management logic through social value.
- Justify fund allocation by proving the effectiveness of actions to boards of directors or donors.
- Steer the strategy by identifying the most successful projects and unmet needs.
- Engage in advocacy thanks to consolidated data to carry weight in the public debate.
- Support the progress of financed social innovations over the long term.
- Build the skills of the projects and help collaborators to professionalize.
2. How to support partner associations without overburdening them?
To guarantee quality data, it is paramount to measure impact at the Project-Beneficiaries level (the real change) rather than at the simple Foundation-Projects level (administrative tracking).
However, associations face three major obstacles: the complexity of impact measurement methodologies, limited time, and the high cost of traditional consulting firms.
The investor can then transform this constraint into true extra-financial support. By financing a support setup in the form of "action-training" combined with a specialized platform, you allow your partners to build skills and internalize their impact management. They gain autonomy, reduce their costs over the long term, and you obtain reliable data to steer your strategy.
3. What is the benefit of a common impact framework?
In traditional methods, there is a conflict between a standard or a customized framework. The standard framework allows aggregating data for the impact investor, but it is not very useful for project leaders. On the contrary, customized frameworks are useful for associations but cannot be aggregated at an investor or sector level. Impact Track has developed a methodology allowing to define a balanced common framework between common indicators and customizable indicators. A common framework allows harmonizing indicators across several structures to obtain a global vision of the portfolio.
- For the investor: it allows data aggregation to analyse the global impact of a thematic program (e.g., digital inclusion, disability) or of its funding.
- For the association: it retains the freedom to add specific indicators to its action while responding to the reporting needs of the investor.
4. How to compare the impact of projects with very distant activities?
It is not a matter of comparing "the number of meals" with "the number of training hours", but of using transversal indicators of change. For example, the gain in self-confidence, the improvement of well-being, or autonomy are effects that can be transversal between projects acting in professional integration, and others in aging well. We will then identify the common effects of a project portfolio to measure the real social transformation, regardless of the sector of activity. We will also define a common impact framework depending on the area of operation such as Child Protection or Fighting exclusions. We try to answer to this question: what are the common effects actors of a same field try to generate?
5. What tools to build a multi-project dashboard?
An impact platform for impact investors (Foundation, endowment fund…) allows centralizing the management of frameworks, tracking collections in real time, and visualizing aggregated data. Impact Track was designed to make two interfaces communicate: that of the investor (global vision) and that of the association (operational vision).
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6. Are there concrete examples of investors who measure their impact?
Yes, many actors use Impact Track to steer their social action:
- Fondation Schneider Electric: creation and deployment in +40 countries of an evaluation framework in professional integration.
- Fondation Orange : Deployment of a common impact measurement framework for digital education and professional integration programs to steer solidarity initiatives.
7. How to build an effective sector framework?
Sectoral impact measurement aims to analyze the collective contribution of a group of actors to the same social issue (e.g., digital inclusion, aging well, child protection). Here are the steps to build a sector impact framework
1. Co-construction of a sector impact framework with key actors of the sector (operators, investors, experts, institutions…)
2. Deployment of the framework by facilitating its application by the structures: this step will allow feeding the aggregated analyses
3. Sectoral development: derive learnings in order to understand the contribution of actors to the resolution of priority issues, plan and program, consolidate the results of the sector.
8. What is the interest of measuring the direct impact of a foundation?
Beyond the impact of the funded projects, a foundation has its own impact on its "intermediate beneficiaries" (the associations). Measuring your direct impact allows evaluating the quality of your selection process, the relevance of your support, and your real contribution to strengthening the sector.
👉 Discover why and how to measure the direct impact of your foundation
9. Does impact measurement cost a lot and take time?
The cost and time vary according to the targeted objective. Without a tool, a single impact report can cost up to €20,000.
The use of a SaaS platform and targeted support allows dividing these costs by three while internalizing the skill. For structures needing speed, our Fast Track format allows launching a data collection in only 2 days of actual work.
👉 Comparison: 3 methods to measure your social impact
10. How to steer social impact over time?
Steering must not be a "one-shot" exercise but a continuous process. Thanks to a data-visualization tool like Impact Track, you can track the evolution of indicators from one year to the next. This allows rethinking the renewal of fundings and accompanying the scale change of the most promising projects objectively.