What is Inspiring Impact?

Inspiring Impact aims to change the way the UK voluntary sector thinks about impact. This means encouraging more organisations to measure their social impact, use the data they collect to increase their impact, and share what they learn with the rest of the sector to ensure every pound spent makes the biggest possible difference to people’s lives.

The Inspiring Impact programme is a collaboration of six organisations. These include membership bodies to ensure it is owned by the sector, and impact measurement specialists to reflect best measurement practice.

As well as the Code of Good Impact Practice, and the Funders’ principles and drivers of good impact practice, Inspiring Impact has launched two free to use online tools to help organisations improve their impact practice. More information on these tools can be found below.

Measuring Up!

Measuring Up! is an online, step-by-step self-assessment tool that helps charities and social enterprises review and improve their impact practice. The tool can be used by those who have just begun thinking about their impact or who have some experience and want to improve.

How can it help?

Measuring Up! gives an accurate and detailed picture of where an organisation’s impact practice is good, and where it could be improved. Completing the self-assessment will generate a report outlining strengths and weaknesses of an organisation, and an action plan can be downloaded to help guide improvement. The report also contains links through to the resources and tools in the Inspiring Impact Hub, so that those who want to improve their impact know where to start.

How does it work?

• Assess your impact practice using the guidance provided explaining each of the indicators across four sections: plan, do, assess, review.
• Map the gaps using the automated report generated on completion.
• Use action plan to improve using the resources signposted in the guidance.
• Track your improvement by revisiting the tool periodically.

Inspiring Impact Hub

The Inspiring Impact Hub is a one-stop shop for impact resources and tools. It pulls together the widest possible range of resources relevant to improving impact practice, and enables users to search and filter results according to their needs.

How can it help?

Developed with input from resource providers, funders, impact specialists and frontline deliverers, the Hub provides listings of impact resources and:

• Categorises resources to simplify the search process.
• Standardises listings to enable simple comparison.
• Provides case studies and peer review to add context and validation.
• Enables users to provide ratings and comments, and to specify requirements and post requests.
• Allows resource providers to add new listings.

How does it work?

Users can access the Hub for free and find resources by clicking on the relevant check boxes to filter by category, sector, format or cost and/or entering keywords or features in the search box. The resources include outcome measures, surveys, database and case management systems, diagnostic tools, research reports, public datasets, and support and training.

Users can register to leave comments, make feature requests and add resources, while providers can generate and maintain their own listings, access notifications of reviews and requests, and monitor statistics and site activity.