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INTRODUCTION
From Board Members to Grant Managers to employees, impact
is on everyone’s mind. Over and over we hear the following from
Executives, Program Officers and Grants Managers:
“We’re expected to understand how to achieve results,
increase them, report on them, and ensure they are
aligned with our business priorities.”
“This year, we have to start tracking and communicating
our impact.”
“We can get clear results from some grants, but it’s not
easy for others.”
“How can we tell if our funding is making a difference?”
So what is holding so many organizations back from getting to impact?
For many, it’s simply too overwhelming. They don’t know where to
start, what questions to ask, or what infrastructure is required to
define and track results. While not a trivial undertaking, with the
right focus and approach, getting to impact can be within reach for
almost any organization.
This article will first explore what is driving this imperative, outline
the principles of effective impact reporting and demonstrate the
benefits of shifting to a results-focused approach to philanthropy.
Whether you’re just getting started on the path to achieving impact
or ready to take your process to the next level and increase your
impact, we hope to inspire you to take steps – small or large – to
adopt a results-focused approach to your giving.
SHIFT FROM PHILANTHROPY TO SOCIAL INVESTING
For most organizations, the first step in getting to results is making
a shift in how you think about what you do and stop thinking
about it as “grant making” or “philanthropy” and to start thinking
Authors:
Burt Cummings,
CEO, Versaic
Wendy Watson-Hallowell,
Executive Director,
Results Consulting
The Rensselaerville
Institute
Michelle DiSabato,
President, Community
Impact Consultants, Inc.
This white paper originally appeared on www.GMNsight.org,
the journal of Grants Managers Network
3. www.versaic.com 3
about it as “social investing.” As a social investor, you are no longer
“donating dollars,” but rather investing in people or communities in
order to evoke change and achieve results.
Over the last century, we have seen many great philanthropists
such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford, lead
the way in giving back, believing that with great wealth came the
responsibility to help others in need. The approach of these early
philanthropists became part of the common culture. Subsequently
corporate giving programs, community foundations and volunteer
organizations began to emerge. These early organizations and
programs still held that same core purpose of helping others
in need. However, in the new century and in this era of social
responsibility, organizations are now being held accountable not
only for their role in changing environments, communities and
cultures, but are also being asked what they’ve done to improve
conditions for those impacted.
So what is being asked and why?
Boards and senior executives expect contributions
to align with their organization’s mission and values
and are mandating that foundations deliver results for
investments and report their impact.
The ongoing trend toward transparency means share-
holders and stakeholders expect to know how their
dollars are being invested and what difference they are
making.
Foundations are feeling increasing pressure and expec-
tations to share results through social media and info-
graphics to tell their impact stories in words and images.
CHANGE IN MINDSET
As we shift to an impact-focused approach, the mindset of the grant
maker is evolving. There are two primary changes underway, one
around how grant makers see themselves and the other around how
they view what they are trying to accomplish.
As the “checkbook charity” mindset quickly becomes outdated,
the way giving organizations view themselves is moving from
The new story of
philanthropy is of
a powerful positive
force investing in
change, leveraging
and mobilizing a broad
range of corporate
assets beyond dollars,
and whose singular
focus is to increase
the contribution
companies can
make to society.
From The Council on Foundations
Report on Increasing Impact,
Enhancing Value
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philanthropy to social investing with their role moving from being
funders to being investors. The Rensselaerville Institute for more
than 50 years has been working with giving organizations to help
them make this shift and go from proving to improving results.
Here are some of the key differences they encourage their clients to
make in changing their thinking:
MAKING THE SHIFT
Moving to social investing needs to be guided by the intentions of
the giving organization. Some organizations are focused on simply
proving the impact they are contributing to and that is a great start-
ing point. Other organizations are looking to go farther and focus
on improving impact. It’s not that proving your impact is a bad
thing. In fact, it’s often the first step on the path to a fully realized
impact initiative. But moving beyond proving to truly improving
your impact is the much-needed shift that is taking place in giving
organizations and will lead to a more sustainable nonprofit sector.
When you’re improving your organization’s impact, you’re focused
on your grant partners tracking tangible, measurable results or
FUNDER Grant Making
Cycle INVESTOR
Looks for well-written proposals that
match with the mission and focuses on
the front-end of the grant process
Looks for outcomes that support the
giving mission/strategy and provide
returns in terms of human gain
Funds programmatic approaches and
evidence-based practices
Asks 3 key questions,
(1) What results are we buying?
(2) How likely is it that we will get them?
(3) Is this the best use of our dollars
given the opportunities available to us?
Primarily connects with grantees at the
beginning and end of the grant period
Anticipates and evaluates changes the
grantee can achieve throughout the
grant period
Engages with grantees throughout the
grant period and verifies that changes
have occurred
Evaluates results after grant dollars are
spent and often with a third party
Uses learnings to adjust strategy and
increase results
Applications
Decision
Making
Reporting and
Improving
Managing
Relationships
and Tracking
Progress
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changes in behavior, not on tracking outputs. You’re willing to
support your non-profit partners in building their capacity to think
critically about their programs, the results they are achieving and
the transition to becoming impact-focused. Their results are your
results and they are the vehicles behind increasing those results
over time. Being impact-focused requires a long-term view and
approach to giving.
IMPACTFUL PHILANTHROPY
Let’s start with a definition of impact. Impact is the vision of change
that grant makers are working toward through their investments.
It is often the ultimate end state that is desired and although you
may never get there, getting closer to that impact is the driving
force behind the work of giving organizations. Impact reporting
is the process of defining, tracking, managing, understanding and
communicating the tangible changes for people or places that
clearly contribute to the desired impact. When impact reporting is
done well, it defines, tracks, measures and achieves specific chang-
es for people and places that will move the community or system
closer to the desired goal. These changes for people and places are
the results that grant makers anticipate and grantees achieve for
those they serve through their programs and services.
Where Are You on the Path to Impact?
Grant making organizations can be grouped into three general
stages when it comes to impact.
1. No impact reporting – simply tracking the funds
granted, persons served, programs supported
2. Minimal impact reporting – collecting common metrics
at the end of the grant to prove impact
3. Full impact reporting – an ongoing initiative based on
engagement with grantees to define, track, achieve,
and improve impact
The outcome capacity and priorities are different at each stage as
are the practices associated with collecting and using outcomes.
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Here is a visual of the path an investor takes to achieving results:
No matter where you are on the path, it’s important to keep in mind
what is possible with impact reporting. If you look at potential, it
paints a very compelling picture:
Clarity on potential and actual ‘return on investment’
in terms of changes in behavior and conditions for
people and places being served.
A portfolio of investments that have the highest poten-
tial social return in both the short and long term.
Critical data available and used by grantees, staff,
board members and other stakeholders to make key
decisions and improve results.
Significantly improved efficiency and reduced requests
from projects that do not contribute to your mission
and intended results.
A powerful ‘result story’ to tell across the grant making
portfolio.
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PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE IMPACT REPORTING
There are some fundamentals that giving organizations need to
keep in mind as they move to impact reporting:
There needs to be a clearly defined mission, vision and
areas of focus that are strategically aligned with the
business and/or community need.
Desired stakeholder results for each focus area are
defined and describe the results that clearly contribute
to the overall impact.
There is a defined continuum of predictive results for
those being served and the grantee’s efforts are tied to
achieving those results.
Both quantitative and qualitative results are integrated
into grantee applications and reporting.
Internal criteria for support are established and there
are effective review criteria to support application
reviewers and decision makers.
Data is collected, used and shared to assess progress
towards results and key learnings before time and
dollars run out.
The right tools are implemented to provide automated,
transparent and streamlined impact reporting.
OBSTACLES TO IMPACT REPORTING
Many obstacles, real and perceived, can get in the way of establish-
ing an impact reporting program:
Lack of understanding and clarity:
The grant making organization doesn’t understand
what impact reporting is or where to start.
They aren’t sure what measurable results they can
take credit for.
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The impact and measurable results aren’t clear.
Overall elements for the program and giving focus
area are in place, but success is only measured by
dollars out the door, geography served and types
of projects funded.
Lack of process, support or resources:
No internal system, process or ownership for capturing
and using data.
Resources (people and budget) of the grantor or
grantees are tight.
Grantees are not set up for success and don’t have the
tools, training or support to capture and report results.
Impact is not being driven strategically nor from
executive leadership.
In the next section, we’ll focus on getting started with an impact
reporting initiative and provide you with practical ideas for imple-
mentation that will help overcome these common obstacles.
THE IMPACT LIFECYCLE
Unfortunately, there’s no “set it and forget it” when it comes to
measuring and reporting your impact. Impact is a cycle of asking
good questions, collecting information, analyzing and communicat-
ing the results, learning from the process and tweaking as you go
along. But even small steps and changes will help you on the path
to understanding, tracking and increasing your impact.
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ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
If there is a single piece of advice we want you to take away
from this article it is this: asking the right questions is the most
important step on the path to impact. From setting your strategy
to establishing your programs and supporting your grantees,
asking the right questions will help to ensure your program is
actually making the impact you intend it to make. While the
questions might not always be easy to answer, the good news is that
you can start with small steps. Even if you’re not ready to launch
a full impact-focused initiative that is rolled up across programs,
improving the questions you’re asking at any of the stages outlined
below will help to improve your grant making.
SET YOUR MISSION, FOCUS AND STRATEGY
To establish or refine your mission and focus, you need to ask
yourself, your team and key stakeholders in your organization
some basic questions. We encourage you to keep it simple and
focused. Perhaps you start with a single focus area and establish
a framework for impact reporting. You can always expand your
footprint once you’ve established your framework. It is much harder
to recover from missed expectations or a lack of results.
STEP 1
Getting to Impact –
Defining Results Sought
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Here are some basic questions to ask when establishing a result
framework:
MISSION:
What is the social change we are trying to affect?
What is our role in creating that change?
How is this aligned with our business priorities and
values?
FOCUS:
What are the areas of focus we will support in order to
affect that change?
What strategies will we use within those areas of focus?
RESULTS:
What changes do we want to see for the people or places
we want to support?
What are the predictive changes in behavior or
condition that indicate those people and places are on
their way to success?
PROGRAMS:
What types of programs and services will you invest in
to get the end result?
SUPPORT:
What type of investments will we make to affect the
change we seek? Will our portfolio include programmat-
ic, capacity building and systemic change grants?
What combination of grants, cash donations, in-kind
donations and community event support are we
providing for the highest gains?
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Below is an example from The Starwood Foundation showing its
results framework for its Workplace Readiness program.
Once you’ve set your strategy and identified opportunities for
investment, it is time to create the process for successful imple-
mentation, starting with putting the right management system in
place all the way through to reporting your impact and telling your
results story.
Here is how a fully configured grants management system, such
as Versaic, supports the strategic and tactical elements of a results-
focused investment process.
STEP 2
Implementing an
Impact Framework
Fostering
Employment
Career
Development
Employer
Readiness
Funding Priorities
WORKPLACE READINESS STRATEGIC RESULT FRAMEWORK
Desired Results
Unemployed local
residents obtain and
retain local living
wage jobs
Local workers advance
into higher career
opportunities
Local employers
change their practices
and policies to employ,
retrain and advance
local residents
*Underserved socially, geographically or economically
Program Types
Hard Skill Training
Soft Skill Training
Social Skills Training
Advanced Skill Training
Leadership and
Management Training
Global Mindedness
Employer Engagement
Job Matching
Workforce Skill
Development & Training
Strategy
HOW WE
CONTRIBUTE
• Direct Service Grants
• Capacity Building Grants
• System Reform Grants
• Associate Engagement
• Associate Advocates
• Collaborative
Partnerships
Address the skills
and access gaps faced
by underserved* or
unemployed residents
in current and
future Starwood
Communities
Impact
A skilled and
diverse local
workforce that
drives business
growth and
economic success
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CAPTURE THE RIGHT DATA
Anticipating the data you’ll need from grantees to track and
assess impact and building that in from the start provides a solid
foundation for improving your results. Collecting the right data
from grantees from the initial grant application through the end
of the grant period is essential for understanding, aggregating and
communicating your impact. Both quantitative and qualitative data
need to be included by grantees to demonstrate impact.
Quantitative data is the hard data or ‘metrics’ that represents
specific changes in the behavior or condition of people and places
served from a specific project or program. These need to directly
contribute to the desired results of your program. Through a grants
management system, quantitative data can be rolled up across
all investments within a focus area or program to paint an overall
Approval
Tracking
& Budget
Module
Scorecards &
Portfolio Reporting
Online Grant
Application
Results
Tracking
GRANTS
MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM
MEASURE OVERALL IMPACT
Confirm/discuss results and
impact to date
COLLECT FORMAL PROPOSALS
Guide NGO’s through application,
results projections and outline
deliverables
CAPTURE IMPACT DETAILS
Guide NGO’s in completing
mid and final grant reporting
to track progress
EVALUATE INVESTMENT GOALS
Discuss grant renewal and
investment priorities
INTERNAL REVIEW & SELECTION
Approve request, track approval
documentation and activate
approval workflow
PROSPECTIVE PARTNERS
Train prospective NGO’s on results
framework & milestone tracking
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picture of the impact with the ability to dig in deeper on any specific
area.
Qualitative data is the narrative statement of an individual project’s
success that defines the changes that a grantee anticipates for
those they serve, based on the type of program or service they
deliver. This data can include images, quotes, videos and anecdotes
that help bring your narrative to life and can be used in board
briefing books and other communications.
AUTOMATE AND STREAMLINE
Putting the right grants management software in place will help
you automate the entire impact reporting process and make it
easier to stay connected with your grantees. This doesn’t mean
you lose the personal touch. The system can ensure you ask the
right questions at the right time, communicate in a timely and
effective way and gently, but persistently remind your grantees of
their commitments. When you automate the more routine parts of
your impact reporting and focus on improving results as the main
goal, you’ll find you have more time and better data for productive
interactions with grantees, based on results achievement and
learning integration.
Similar to setting your strategy and focus areas, the decision
about which investment opportunities to pursue comes down to
asking the right questions. When using an investor mindset your
grant partners should be able to answer the following four key
questions:
1. What results will your program achieve and for whom?
2. How will you know when success is achieved?
3. What participant results will you monitor to ensure
there is enough time and money left to achieve
success?
4. What are your plans to sustain the program beyond
our investment?
STEP 3
Find the Right
Opportunities and
Partnering for Success
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Based on the grant partner responses, social investors evaluate their
options based on the following criteria:
1. What results are we buying?
2. Do they align with our strategic priorities?
3. What are the chances we will get those results?
4. Is this the best investment for our limited funds?
From the initial grant application, it’s critical to set your grant part-
ners up for success. You have an opportunity to educate grantees,
clearly communicate your criteria for support and to help potential
partners understand how they can engage with your organization.
Making the application process as simple and foolproof as possible
saves the grantee’s time, eliminates potential frustration and sets
the tone for a positive, constructive relationship. Make sure you
provide technical assistance and support to guide prospective
partners through the application process.
Once the partnership is in place, creating multiple opportunities
for touch points with grantees will help forge stronger partnerships.
The funder mentality that relies on an end-of-grant report as the
sole or primary touch point with grantees is no longer sufficient.
Increasing touch points with grantees leads to more successful out-
comes and enables them to course correct before time and money
run out. Supporting grantees to manage with milestones during
the grant period is an effective way to understand their approach
to success and ensure they are on track to meet expectations.
Milestone management links key activities to participant changes
that grantees use to track and manage success. This is the roadmap
that determines if the project is on track to achieve anticipated
results. The milestones are outlined in the grant application and
progress is monitored during specified reporting periods to clarify
progress and capture key learnings.
Depending on the length of the grant period, milestone reports
might come halfway through the grant period or more frequently
if needed. Keeping it simple and using the information provided
STEP 4
Manage Milestones and
Track Progress
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by grantees during the application process to remind them of their
commitments is an effective tracking approach. Focusing on the
information that is critical to results success will help the grantees
respond more quickly.
The insight you gain into the progress of your grantees will help
you make better decisions about where and how you should invest
going forward. You’ll know much sooner if a grantee is falling short
of expectations and be able to put steps in place to support that
grantee and get them back on track towards results achievement.
Below is an example of a progress report and score card from
The Starwood Foundation.
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Engaging with your community partners and capturing a rich
dataset allows social investing organizations to create a powerful
narrative of the impact they are having on their business and
communities. Two effective tools for this are StoryBanking and
Result Cards.
Part of the Versaic Grants Management software, StoryBanking is a
story capturing tool that enables grant makers to create a multimedia
repository of data that provides the color commentary around
a grant (the qualitative data). Grantees are prompted to upload
pictures, audio, video, quotes and stories into a database that can
be accessed by anyone in the giving organization who needs it.
Rather than hunting around for these assets or the associated data
when it’s time to create a narrative about the grant, everything is
connected and readily available.
The Results Card is a tool developed by Community Impact
Consultants, Inc., a strategic consulting firm, and used to help
communicate the program’s mission, focus and achievements
(a combination of qualitative and quantitative data). Similar to how
a report card communicates a student’s performance academically
and an investment card tracks performance of financial invest-
ments, a Social Investment Result Card combines both of these to
clearly articulate and depict the performance of your organization’s
performance against its goals.
STEP 5
Tell Your Impact Story
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Either of these tools can be used in a variety of ways and with a range
of audiences. Here are some examples of how they can be used:
Effective impact reporting relies on a process of learning from ex-
perience and refining for improvement. The organizations that are
most successful at improving their impact are continually asking
themselves and their grantees key questions to enhance learning:
Questions for investors
What are we doing well?
What are we missing?
Where are the hidden gems?
Questions for grantees
Did you achieve more than the expected results,
if so why?
Did you achieve less than the expected results,
if so what was the cause?
Name up to five things you are doing differently in
this program to improve results and describe how
those changes are working.
STEP 6
Learn and Refine
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By incorporating learning as you go, you’ll be able to respond more
effectively to the different needs of your community partners, your
stakeholders and your social investing team while you’re improving
your impact.
In summary, Social Investors can improve impact by making
smarter investment decisions on the front end, monitoring and
tracking progress, assessing risk and performance more effectively
before reinvesting, and only funding groups that embrace the
impact-focused model.
The tangible benefits of social investing are widespread and com-
pelling. Not only are giving organizations faring better financially,
they are engendering greater loyalty with both employees and
customers. Today’s shareholders are becoming increasingly savvy
and want to know that the investments an organization makes in
the community are resulting in real change.
An impact-focused approach enables corporations and foundations
to support the non-profits that are moving the needle on social
change and forge stronger relationships with those community
partners. It puts everyone on the same page about expectations and
SUMMARY
The Benefits of
Impact Reporting
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what the organization hopes to accomplish, as well as providing a
framework for evaluating results. When you understand the true
value of social investing for your organization, you’ll make better
decisions about how and where you invest and be better equipped
to make a case for continued or increased investment.
Resources for learning more about impact reporting
• Starwood Case Study
• The Zen of Impact Measurement by Mark W. Shamley,
President & CEO, ACCP — The Zen of Impact Measurement.pdf
• GMM Report — Assessing the How of Grantmaking.pdf
• Giving in Numbers 2014 Edition by CECP
http://cecp.co/research/benchmarking-reports/giving-in-numbers.html
• Report on Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value —
The Council on Foundations Report.pdf
• The Rensselaerville Institute — www.rinstitute.org
• Community Impact Consultants — www.communitymeasurement.com
• Versaic — www.versaic.com
Companies that
increased giving
since 2010 improved
business performance;
companies that have
increased giving by
more than 10% since
2010 also increased
median revenues by
11% from 2010 to
2013.
From Giving in Numbers
2014 Edition by CECP
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BURT CUMMINGS
CEO, VERSAIC
Burt has served as Versaic CEO since 2006. He conceived and
directed the transformation of the company to develop a patented,
flexible platform for grants, donation and sponsorship management.
A technologist at heart and engineer by education, Burt’s passion
is continually improving Versaic's software and customer support as
well as exploring new markets and solutions for the company. His
background includes executive positions at Apple as well as senior
branding and marketing positions with leading organizations including
Landor Associates, a Young & Rubicam company. Burt graduated
cum laude from UC San Diego with a BS in Computer Science.
WENDY WATSON-HALLOWELL
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RESULTS CONSULTING,
THE RENSSELAERVILLE INSTITUTE
Wendy Watson-Hallowell is a national leader at helping foundations
and their grantees clarify and increase the results they achieve. She
brings a deep knowledge of organizational change, outcomes, and
information systems to all assignments and is comfortable with
large, mid-size, and small corporate, private, family, and community
foundations, and collective impact initiatives. Wendy has extensive
experience in government grant-making and is an expert at looking
at private public initiatives as well as collaborative investments among
foundations. Over the last 25 years, Wendy’s skills have been honed
in leadership roles at MTV Networks, The Rensselaerville Institute,
and through other private consulting work.
MICHELLE DISABATO
PRESIDENT, COMMUNITY IMPACT CONSULTANTS, INC.
Michelle DiSabato is a Corporate Affairs’ Professional with more
than 15 years of experience in successfully developing, designing,
and implementing key business and programmatic strategies including
managing and executing U.S. and international, multi-million dollar
philanthropic initiatives and programmatic social impact analyses.
Formerly, Ms. DiSabato was Manager of Planning and Reporting -
Corporate Contributions in the New York office of Altria Corporate
Services, Inc. During her tenure at Altria, Ms. DiSabato received
international philanthropy experience while working in Brussels,
Belgium, and Lausanne, Switzerland.
Community Impact Consultants, Inc. (CIC) is a full service consulting
company working with philanthropy clients to help them make the
shift to social investing and Tell Their Results Story and how they are
meeting the needs of their communities.
