Jane Steele addresses ACF conference on impact assessment
PHF Head of Impact and Evaluation, Jane Steele, spoke today at the Association of Charitable Foundations annual conference, presenting preliminary findings from a major assessment of the impact of PHF’s funding since 2007.
During a session on ‘Foundations of impact’, she outlined an approach to impact assessment that uses an ‘impact framework’, categorising a set of outcomes achieved through activities funded by the Foundation. Fourteen main outcomes were identified, and a representative sample of 120 grants (51 per cent of total grants completed during the period 2007-12) was reviewed for impact against each outome. The result is an ‘impact map’, indicating the extent to which the Foundation has had impact in different areas.
A short report, ‘Assessing Impact’, was shared with participants at the conference session, presented as work in progress and a contribution to the lively debates taking place within trusts and foundations about ways to measure impact. The report is available to read below, and some appendices are supplied here for conference attendees seeking further information.