Choose Data with Purpose: A Simpler Process for Collecting Impact Metrics
One of the most commonly intimidating parts of creating an impact report is collecting the data it will showcase, so you may already may be quite familiar with the annual scramble for statistics:
“Who keeps track of these numbers?”
“Where can I find how many people we served?”
“Did we even log our volunteer hours?”
All this desperation comes from a reasonable place: numbers are concrete. Incorporated properly, numbers give readers something tangible to grasp and substantiate the story you’re telling. That’s why many impact reports prioritize big, bold, colorful statistics. It’s easy to look at such a model and set off chasing whatever numbers you can find.
But numbers don’t strengthen your report simply by being large or available. Without a clear connection to the message around it, even a perfectly accurate statistic may detract from your story. Stringing together disconnected statistics consequently produces a report that is disjointed, cluttered, or difficult to follow.
Nevertheless, don’t let collecting data for your impact report scare you! Start by pinpointing what you want your audience to understand about your work, then use the data you have on hand to show what you did and why it mattered.
Three tips will help you narrow down which data to incorporate:
- Start with your message rather than your metrics.
At Magenta, when drafting impact reports with our clients, we often start by defining a “leading concept” for each section. For example, we might first align on finishing the sentence:
“After reading this section, I want the reader to understand ___________.”
Rather than starting with every statistic available and trying to tie it all together, this method emphasizes the most important outcomes the report needs to communicate. From there, we can more naturally summarize the evidence that your organization made progress toward those outcomes. We call that evidencing your proof points.
As an example: perhaps your leading concept is that your organization made a program more accessible this year. Your proof point might be that you expanded into a new neighborhood or removed a participation fee.
- Find the best evidence to support your proof points.
Once you know what you’re trying to demonstrate, it’s time to go looking for data: i.e., the kind that will best support your proof point.
Let’s say you decide to use the above proof point example about expanding access. Next, perhaps you can show how many new participants came from the neighborhood most recently added to your programming. Maybe enrollment increased after you eliminated the fee.
Metrics like these become particularly compelling when compared to what you might have presented with no context. Take this comparison from one of Magenta’s clients:
No context statistic: 50 people participated in Camp Collective.
Context-embedded statistic: Through ATL Collective’s need-based scholarships, 10 people participated in Camp Collective who otherwise would not have been able to afford it.
Remember: The strongest evidence isn’t always the biggest number. See how the second statistic tells you more about Camp Collective’s access outcome, even though it’s a smaller number than the first? (See the full final report here.)
- Put the evidence you already have to work.
There are times when it’s worthwhile to run an experiment or collect entirely new information. But when it comes time to publish your impact report, measurement doesn’t need to become a whole separate workstream that distracts from your core activities, especially when useful evidence is already available.
Keep in mind: evidence may not be a number at all. Data can include statistics, survey findings, observations, milestones, testimonials, or other information that substantiate your point. Clean, quantitative data is valuable, but there may be qualitative evidence more easily accessible that tells your story just as well. (For more on collecting low-hanging, qualitative fruit, see our recent Constituent Feedback case study featuring our client, OnBoard.)
We’re often conditioned to believe that numbers, without fail, provide concrete evidence. But a statistic only earns its place in your impact report when it helps your reader understand something important about your work. Ground each statistic or metric in a proof point that explains why it’s there, and if it’s not clear what the number is supporting, leave it out.
You don’t need to track everything your organization does or hunt down tons of statistics, either. Start with what you want to say, identify what proves it, and put the evidence you have to work. Your impact report— and your data collection process—will be simpler as a result.
Need help making the connection between your metrics and your meaning?
