Measuring Social Change: Lessons from the Field

For-profit organizations measure success by looking at their year-end revenues.  Nonprofit organizations, on the other hand, aren’t in business to make a profit; instead, most nonprofits are in the business of creating social change.  The idea of measuring social change can be daunting, especially if that change is expected to take several years.  Organizations need a clear understanding of what it is they are trying to change, what that change will look like when it occurs, the timeframe for this change, and what other factors may also contribute to this change. 

At Innovation Network, we have worked with funders and community-based organizations interested in measuring social change. Funders are interested in learning about the social value of their investment dollars.  Nonprofits want to know how they are progressing towards achieving their program goals (partly to report back to their funders and partly to better understand and improve their own work).

Understanding and measuring social change requires a long-term, reciprocal, and balanced partnership between the grantmaker and the grantee. Both parties need to work together to set realistic expectations and outline strategies for collecting useful information.

Tensions can arise, as when the pressure to collect evaluation data puts a strain on the resources of the funded organization.  This is where capacity building can be crucial.  It’s of utmost importance that funders invest not only in programs, but also in the success of their grantee organizations.  Social change may take years or even decades to occur; it’s important to ensure that the grantee organization can be sustained  long enough to have a real impact.

Below are some of the lessons we’ve learned from our work over the past 10 years:

• In order for social change to be accurately measured, grantmakers need to provide enough resources to cover not only specific interventions (i.e., programs and initiatives) but also the grantees’ operational needs.
  
• Community organizations need to be sustainable over a long period of time to have an impact on social change. 
  
• It’s important, especially for funders, to have a realistic perspective on what types of change can occur within a given grant period, and to assess social change in terms of short, intermediate and long-term outcomes.
  
• Funders need to share lessons learned from their funding experiences to promote general field building.
  
• In designing a multi-year funding partnership, it’s important to incorporate flexibility.  There needs to be an understanding and willingness on both sides to make process adjustments over the course of program implementation.
  
• If a funder is interested in developing common outcomes among multiple grantees, there needs to be an understanding that consensus building takes time, but is vital to the overall buy-in of the initiative and its evaluation results.
  
• Buy-in is further enhanced by including grantees, funders, and other relevant stakeholders in the evaluation design process.
  
• It’s important to be willing to make process adjustments along the way.  When funding multi-year efforts, it’s wise to step back and take a look at the overall process, asking questions such as:  What are we doing? How well are we doing it?  This helps to make course corrections during the program, rather than waiting to the end to find out what strategies didn’t work.   

Measuring social change requires the long-term commitment of both grantmaker and grantee. Through a mutually beneficial partnership, social change can be successfully achieved to ensure lasting impact in the communities served.