Articulating your Impact Model is like creating cypher for your whole organisation.
Charities exist to deliver public benefit against their charitable objectives. And so, their Impact Model should be the most critical, and the one driving everything.
Developing your Impact Model is the deep work to create clarity so we can make better decisions about what we do, how we do it, and how it is funded, together. This is essential to ensure the resilience of your charity, as highlighted in the Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Organisational Resillience programme.
What is an impact model?
Your Impact Model is one of three models which drives how you function as a charity.
Your Impact Model is how you deliver your purpose.
It encompasses your understanding of the problem you exist to solve, the principles of your work, the theory that underpins it, your connectedness to community, and your organisational knowledge of what is important.
Your Revenue Model is how you finance your work.
Your fundraising, earned income, grant writing etc. It combines your finance and funding.
Your Operational Model is about the people and processes.
Your team, governance, admin, technology etc.
How I work with you to define your Impact Model
Over a 3-6 month period I will work in partnership with your organisational lead for this work, adding capacity and technical expertise as needed. But to create something that is really valuable for you, part of my role is as a facilitator of the conversations needed to surface what really matters.
Your team are the experts in what you do. My role is to help you unlock that knowledge and articulate it in a way that will create clarity for everyone – internally and externally.
During this period I will:
- Facilitate whole organisational, service user and team workshops to create insights and consensus.
- Have meetings with key team members to learn about what you do and how.
- Undertake desk top review of your impact practice and evidence basis.
- Create your impact model – both a visual representation of how you create impact, and a written document to act as a guide for decisions, and a basis for internal and external communications.
The process is as important as the product.
By working collectively, bringing together people who use your services, delivery teams, back office teams, leadership, and Trustees we:
- Create organisational understanding of approach and boundaries as a basis for all operational and strategic decisions.
- Identify tensions created by different perspectives, experiences and assumptions, and address them. These are the things that often stand in the way of good decision making.
- Strengthen working relationships.
What is critical about the process is that it centres the people we exist for, the change we really want to create, and convenes everyone around that change.
Isn’t this vision, mission, values, and theory of change?
Well, yes. Kind of.
But the trouble I find with these is:
- They are often about communication, not understanding. We prioritise simple words and punchy messaging over creating collective understanding of what they mean.
- They are often created with the wrong people in mind. We think of funders, donors, supporters. Not the people we really want to create change for.
- We don’t make the connections between them, and to other aspects of our work – like our Operational and Revenue Models.
Impact is more than a marketing and fundraising tool. It is the basis of our existence.
We need to be able to understand how everything we do in an organisation affects how we have impact. And your Impact Model is the basis for doing so.
Creating your Impact Model will strengthen your organisation
This work creates real clarity and consensus which are essential to being able to:
- Set a strategy that is fit for purpose for a changeable operating environment.
- Make clear, shared decisions about who you support, the services you provide and how they are delivered.
- Review your Revenue Model – both the costs of services, and how they are funded. It may lead to being able to target new funders.
- Ensure you have the right Operational Model, and processes which support your ways of working.
- Create measures for your impact that are grounded in what you know is important to the people and places you exist for and are genuinely useful to you as an organisation.
It isn’t a silver bullet.
But recalibrating your Impact Model and making sure you are fully in control is an essential step in creating resilience in your charity.
How much does it cost?
The cost depends on the size of your organisation, the complexity of your services, and where you are already in your impact journey. This will influence the amount of time required to develop and define your impact model.
I have created three stages to the process, which will enable us to work together at a pace, and budget that works for everyone.
You can purchase a full package from the start, or you can start by purchasing the assessment and recommendations, and if you decide to work with me further, we can build a package of support together.
I offer different rates for small charities with an income under £250k. Get in touch to find out more.
Assessment and recommendation
What’s included:
- Review of your current Theory of Change and approach to impact
- Facilitated session with team to assess impact approach
- Recommendations on strengthening your model and approach.
Costs start at £2,000
Impact model
What’s included:
- Assessment as above
- Learning session: Impact on our terms
- Facilitated sessions with teams, people who use services, Board.
- Development of Impact Model
- Two iterations of Impact Model following consultation with team.
- Detailed documentation and graphics of model
Costs start at £5,000
Impact framework
What’s included:
- Review of all current impact measures
- Identification of impact measures for refined impact framework
- Recommendations on impact measurement process
Costs start at £2,500
Testimonials
“Working with Ali Lyons has been a positive and rewarding experience for our team. Her expertise in helping us articulate our outcomes and then in co-creating an impact model and framework for our charity has been transformational. We now have an effective framework that helps us see how our day to day activities connect to the longer term change we hope to create.”
Eddie, CEO, Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum
“Working with Ali has been hugely beneficial. She supported us in shaping our Impact Model and brought real clarity to how we understand and communicate the difference we make. Ali has a rare ability to listen carefully, ask thought-provoking questions, and turn complex concepts into a practical and accessible framework. The tools and insights she has given us will have lasting value, and we are deeply appreciative of her guidance. We would not hesitate to recommend her to others.”
Karen, CEO, SNAP charity