Impact and Effect Analysis in Nonprofit Organizations, Businesses, and Organizations with Social Value

In the discussion surrounding impact analyses, the term "impact" is often used without much clarification, but what exactly does it mean?

Impacts refer to the (positive and/or negative) changes that can be observed in beneficiaries or affected individuals of an intervention (e.g., people, groups, society) or the environment after an intervention has taken place. Impact analyses therefore encompass the measurement, representation, and analysis of impacts, enabling a more adequate assessment of success in terms of the mission for NPOs than would be the case with pure performance measurement. There are a variety of different methods and approaches to measure and analyze impacts. A key concept underlying many of these approaches is the impact chain, which must be created for each stakeholder of the analyzed project or program. This means that it must first be clarified who the central stakeholders of an intervention are. The logical impact chain ultimately illustrates what a stakeholder invests (input), what activities are undertaken with those resources, what output is produced, and what impacts (outcome and impact) are ultimately generated as a result. The sum of the identified impact chains of the stakeholders constitutes the impact model of the analyzed project or program.

Simple Impact Chain