Social Impact Summit Quarterly – Key takeaways

The latest Social Impact Summit Quarterly focused on practical ways to measure impact effectively. Paula Cowan and Royden Howie unpacked common challenges – like data overload, misaligned frameworks, and staff resistance – and stressed the need to align measurement with strategy and stakeholder expectations.

Frameworks like SROI, SDGs, and B Corp were explored, with a strong emphasis on transparency, operational efficiency, and tailoring approaches to fit each organisation’s context. Real-world examples helped bring these concepts to life.

Next steps

• Attend upcoming Impact Lab Masterclasses in Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney to deepen your strategy and storytelling.
• Connect with Paula Cowan and Royden Howie to explore how these approaches could work for your organisation.

Session highlights

Challenges in impact measurement

• Overwhelming data, too many frameworks, and unclear starting points.
• Need to balance rigour with operational realities.
• Legacy systems and misalignment with purpose are common hurdles.

Human & operational barriers

• Staff and community fatigue from excessive data collection.
• Government reporting requirements often clash with meaningful data.
• Attribution and lack of standardisation remain sector-wide issues.
• Tokenistic measurement undermines genuine impact.

Impact-Driven Organisations

• Focus on clear goals and stakeholder engagement.
• Framework-agnostic approach—choose what fits your context.
• Stakeholders include customers, suppliers, members, and communities.

Frameworks & approaches

• Covered Theory of Change, logic models, SDGs, GRI, AASB, and SROI.
• Emphasis on choosing frameworks that align with strategy, compliance, and capacity.

Case studies

• Examples from Ventia and Red Kite showed how tailored frameworks drive credibility.
• A decision tree was introduced to help organisations choose the right approach.

Building impact culture

• Involve teams early and be authentic about your impact goals.
• HR plays a key role in embedding impact into organisational culture.

Balancing data & efficiency

• Minimise burden on frontline teams.
• Make data collection meaningful and clearly valuable to staff and clients.

Privacy & cultural sensitivity

• Tension between funder demands and youth privacy needs.
• Clear communication and tailored solutions are essential.

Final thoughts

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Start with strategy, choose frameworks that fit, and ask the right questions. For tailored support, reach out to Paula and Royden – and consider joining the upcoming workshops to take your impact journey further.