The Impact Management Project (IMP) is a forum for building global consensus on how to measure and manage impact. In coordination with the insight over one thousand stakeholders in the industry, the IMP found that understanding impact performance requires collecting data across five dimensions of impact.
- WHAT: What is the impact that is expected to be delivered? For example:
- CO2 emissions decreased
- Earlier detection of an illness
- Increased savings or reduced debt for families
- WHO: Who are the beneficiaries? For example:
- Industrial food processing factories dependent upon natural gas to heat water
- Latin X women with limited access to women’s health care
- HOW MUCH: How much impact is being delivered? Significant impact for a few? Small impact for the masses? Significant impact for the masses? For example:
- Long-haul tractor trailer trucks will decrease CO2 output by 2%
- Death of mothers in child birth decreased by 10%
- CONTRIBUTION: What is the relative significance of the impact (the efficacy of the impact) compared to other approaches? For example, if a mobile app is intended to help people who are depressed and six month later their depression has lifted, is their improvement caused by the mobile app or were there more-significant other causative factors, e.g., medication, therapy or time.
- RISK: What are the risks that impact will not be delivered. For example, every business plan has risks. What are the risks that may prevent impact from being delivered? For example:
- A competitive impact offering may deliver greater efficacy, and become the preferred solution (analogous to having a better “product-market” fit).
- A competitive impact solution provider may have a much more effective way to connect with beneficiaries (analogous to having a stronger go-to-market plan)
- Updated government regulations may work against adoption our your solution