Blog

One of the great anxieties of our age seems to be the increasing pace of life and the growing dependence on the forces of technology that are beyond our control. Where once technological innovation might come in physical form - a wheel, a steam engine, a telephone with a wire attached to it – that you could observe, touch and make sense of, many of today’s tech breakthrough’s, particularly in the workplace, are more abstract and tied into eco-systems that appear somewhat de-humanised.

By Erica Bertolotto, Inspiring Impact, Programme Manger.  How much evaluation is enough? What to measure, and what not to measure? How much money and time to spend on evaluation? How much data collection is enough? Most charities grapple with these questions, and this is one of the topics that came...

By Aongus O’Keeffe is Programme Leader at Inspiring Impact Northern Ireland  We all know it yet we all struggle to do it. Making an impact and improving the lives of people is the ultimate reason all charities, social enterprises and the funders who support them, exist. Yet our day to...

Shared measurement  Visionary—membership organisation for local sight loss charities—is working with NCVO Charities Evaluation Services and NPC to develop shared outcomes in measurement in the sight loss sector. This Inspiring Impact sub-sector partnership is still in its early stages—starting in January 2017. As we find out what sight loss charities...

Youth Music shared ten tips for other grant-giving organisations who are looking to focus on impact: Use a theory of change. Youth Music found the theory of change process to be very useful in setting out their overall aims and their outcomes. This now sits behind all of their grant-making....

Lucy de Las Casas, NPC and Patty Lozano-Casal, ESS share their learning from Inspiring Impact’s first sub-sector partnership with Sported.  Inspiring Impact recently completed its first ever sub-sector partnership, which involved Sported—an umbrella organisation which works with community sports groups in transforming the lives of disadvantaged young people, NPC, and...

  Inspiring Impact ran and live streamed an event on 2nd February 2017 that focused on the benefits of working with volunteers to measure impact practice. Three of our Impact Champs presented on their own experiences: Antonia Orr from Coalition for Efficiency works with skilled pro bono volunteers as part of...

Nick Wilsdon, Learning & Evaluation Manager at the National Foundation for Youth Music shares his experience of the process of successfully embedding a strategic learning approach to evaluation. He highlights the journey of change in his organisation, and concludes with helpful tips for anyone embarking on a similar journey.  Youth...

 Patty Lozano-Casal, (second left) Inspiring Impact lead for Evaluation Support Scotland, reflects on Principle 8 of The Code of Good Impact Practice: ‘Actively share your impact plans, methods, findings and learning’.   In it she draws on her two weeks at the Big Lottery Fund (the Fund) on a learning...

When you go away how do you decide where to stay? Do you go with the cheapest option or look at how many stars a hotel has got? Do you just stay in the same place every time or insist on somewhere new? Do you rely on tips from family...