Social Impact Measurement for Civil Society Organizations

Social Impact Measurement for Civil Society Organizations

Background
The project intended to empower the operation of non-profits within Civil Society. There is a need for knowledge on the measurement of the social value and social impact of the programs, operations & organizations of the Third Sector. Funders and policymakers want to know whether their funds and policies make a difference, and CSOs have been increasingly eager to be in a position to respond to these demands. The third Sector lacks an automatic mechanism to document the benefits it generates, an array of valuation tools and measuring devices has had to be developed to accomplish this task. Systematic pieces of evidence of the impact of the Third Sector at the macro level and in relation to the sector’s supposedly distinctive functions are lacking. But to really measure impact the key is the generation of a counterfactual, or what would have happened to your beneficiaries if your program had not existed when they (hopefully) benefited from it. V This project has created tools that can enhance CSOs position and can assist them not only to become truly effective and efficient but enable them to prove it as well and have provided high-quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of CSOs.

Objectives
During the project implementation & upon completion, the project has managed to contribute to the achievement of its objectives. Project partners have managed to create tools & an online platform that provides CSOs with knowledge, skills & competencies to deliver their work and measure their impact and an online environment where CSOs can seek guidance and get trained, building in essence a specialized community of professionals in Europe. People who work in the CSOs can utilize these project outputs in order to elevate their work in terms of measuring their activities’ impact. The created platform is available to be used to improve the learning experience of adult learners by providing high-quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of CSOs. The project has taken into account different sectors of CSOs activities as well as different local, regional & national environments while formulating the relevant methodology, thus generating a robust tool for measuring impact, not just but primarily, for the Third Sector as it evolves across Europe as a main engine of well-being. Consequently, the project achieved to empower CSOs by enhancing their effectiveness, transparency & governance through social impact measurement methods.

Implementation
Project management and coordination activities
-Online kick-off meeting
-Monthly online progress meetings
-Interim meeting
-Final meeting
-Elaboration of the Comprehensive guide on social impact measurement in Partner countries which included 7 national studies (one per partner country) and Comprehensive research about existing methods of measuring impact
-Co-creation of a methodological Manual on how to measure social impact
-Co-Creation of a virtual learning environment through an online platform
-Implementation of a Learning Training Activity in Italy
-Implementation of three Multiplier Events (Italy, Croatia, and Oslo)
-Dissemination and exploitation activities (Dissemination monitoring tool, Dissemination and exploitation plan)
-Management and implementation documents preparation (Risk management Plan, Quality Assessment Plan, Implementation Plan)

Results
The project implementation led to the achievement of both tangible and intangible results for several target groups:
- 7 national studies/
-Comprehensive research about existing ways/methods of measuring impact in the Third Sector
-Methodological manual including the necessary material on how to measure the impact
-Online platform with tool assessing social impact/training material that will be used during the trainings
-Quality Assurance Plan
-3 Multiplier Events/60 stakeholders informed/participated
-1 Short-term joint staff training event
-28 staff members (19 face-to-face and 9 online) from the partner organizations trained to educate based on the platform material
-more than 50.000 stakeholders were informed about the platform and the project results through dissemination activities that were carried out during the project implementation
- social media channels
-info items (posters/brochures/banner)
- Project Management documents: Implementation plan, Risk management plan, Dissemination and exploitation plan, Interim and Final reports
-131 CSOs that were registered on the online platform (11/22)

The Partners:

HIGHER INCUBATOR GIVING GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY, Greece - Coordinator

ACT GRUPA, Croatia
Centrum Edukacji i Badan Spolecznych, Poland
CESIE, Italy
CSI CENTER FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION LTD, Cyprus
INOVA+ - INNOVATION SERVICES, SA, Portugal
MIDOT – Reflecting and Rating NPOs Ltd. (CC), Israel
OSLOMET - STORBYUNIVERSITETET, Norway