14th January 2021
Some say, if you can’t measure it, it didn’t happen. But it’s a real challenge to assess social impact. A partnership in South Africa aims to introduce impact measurement and management techniques to grassroots creative and social entrepreneurs.
Creative and social entrepreneurs want to change the world. But how do they know if they are succeeding? Some get heavily involved in quantitative measurement, metrics, log frames and targets. “If you can’t measure it, it just didn’t happen,” was a view expressed by a US-based public health awareness campaigner some years back. Others say the measurement mania can go too far and miss out on a whole range of qualitative and “softer” considerations. They quote a character in an Oscar Wilde play who defines a cynic as someone who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. Is there some mid-point between these two extremes? What is the right balance between them?