Donors give because they want to have an impact, to make a positive difference for a cause or in the lives of others. While the nature and degree of this impact will vary, donors will want to assess and understand the results of the investment so that they can better help the charity as well as improve the effectiveness of their philanthropy.
Before embarking on a philanthropic programme, you may find it helpful to think about what you want to achieve, and how. For instance, your answers to the questions below will help you determine how involved you want to be, the level of your giving and the scope of your giving programme.
- What impact do you seek?
- What do you want to learn? What evidence do you need to assess impact?
- How do you want to learn it (e.g., in written reports, on site visits, through an adviser)?
- Are you prepared to support the costs of the evaluation?
- Do you want to see the ‘work on the ground’, through site visits or meeting beneficiaries?
- What advice would help you to evaluate your giving programme (e.g., professional adviser, other donors)?
In evaluating specific projects, think about the questions below. If you are making sizeable gifts, you may want to consider building in a percentage to be directed toward a formal appraisal.
- How did the outcomes compare against targets?
- What worked and what didn't?
- What was important to the success?
- What were the challenges?
- What were the internal constraints?
- What external factors affected the results?
- How else could you help the charity (such as by offering your time, expertise or networks)?
- How will your findings impact future giving decisions?
- How might you be more effective in your charitable giving?
Meaningful and useful impact evaluation requires time, skills and funding, and charities often face heavy administrative burdens of performance measurement demanded by a variety of funders. Therefore, donors should consider earmarking part of their gift for evaluation, or work in collaboration with other funders to avoid duplication of resources.
In any case, donors should work closely with the charity to identify appropriate outcomes and impacts to measure that truly capture impact, rather than simple outputs, as well as to agree how these measures will be assessed.
