Published before February 2009
What is Impact reporting and where is it going? That was the theme of a workshop run by RNID’s Brian Lamb at a recent CharityComms conference about measuring impact and communicating results.
In his workshop Lamb discussed the process RNID went through to implement its first impact report. Lamb gave useful advice and practical guidelines to help delegates to integrate impact reporting into their own organisations.
Lamb started by telling the audience that the change of agenda for impact reporting within RNID was essentially driven and led by the communications team. Thus his audience could not have been better targeted.
RNID’s impact reporting journey:
RNID’s journey began in 2000, with the Charity Commission’s growing interest in accountability and performance. Lamb admitted that at first he had little inspiration for impact reporting so began by doing research into the corporate sector. He looked at companies such as Shell and BP, to see how they communicated about issues like climate change. Each company had developed its own model of impact, and these helped RNID draw up its own impact report.
RNID’s impact report was primarily implemented to demonstrate its accountability and transparency. They wanted to show stakeholders their objectives and whether they were meeting those objectives. They also wanted impact reporting to become an integral part of RNID’s planning and reporting - and eventually to become a measurement of how it was making a difference. Finally it acted as a contract with RNID’s stakeholders.
In effect the report became the organisation’s manifesto. What was ultimately driving this was the feeling that: “if we were more transparent we would get more credibility- that would equal trust - which would translate into support,” Lamb explained.
Lamb identified 6 trends within impact reporting:
Objectives
Measurement
Stakeholders
Planning
Simplicity
Finances
RNID used these trends in their reports to clarify their objectives and to show what success would look like.
One point Lamb emphasised was the importance of setting targets - not only for the year ahead but also for the year after. Part of RNID’s accountability and transparency was to talk about aims for the future which had to be publicised as part of the manifesto and contract with the stakeholders. Lamb said: “We were actually putting ourselves on the line and saying what we would achieve before we’d achieved it and then being held to account against that - whatever happened. It meant we had to be more realistic with our aims.” In the first year out of 60 measures RNID failed on 7 which the public were informed about. “Although this caused panic, the world did not cave in and people began to have more faith in the adventure!”
It is also crucial in Lamb’s experience to consult at all times with your stakeholders and board of trustees and align the report with the planning system of your organisation. The impact report is now the top end of RNID’s planning process.
In terms of the narrative of the report Lamb said: the mantra in the first few years was to “only talk about what we could really demonstrate that we had done in some way”- instead of just stories and pictures of smiling grannies, RNID wanted hard facts and figures. The narrative therefore is crucial as it “shows a sense of where the organisation is going and what it is trying to achieve.” So keeping it short, simple, well designed and transparent is key.
Lamb also suggested bringing someone from outside your organisation to validate your processes - an excellent way to measure accountability.
The future of impact reporting:
RNID plans to move more towards the world wide web in the future. Although only half RNID’s members are internet users Lamb anticipates that this will grow. Consequently RNID has started integrating its impact report onto its website. RNID will also be starting to set up online discussion groups on issues within their impact report. Videos of case studies are now being used extensively on the site instead of just static photos and blurbs. Lamb concluded by showing one such video, portraying the moving story of a deaf man who is now actively engaged in employment.
Although a lengthy process to implement impact reporting at RNID, everyone within the charity is now much clearer about the aims and objectives they are trying to achieve Lamb explained. Although this process may seem daunting for communications staff Lamb is living proof that it can work – with Lamb’s dedication and vision RNID have won several awards for their impact report.
