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Keep shoppingMeasuring Social Outcomes and Impact: Financial Perspective
9 students
Measuring Social Outcomes and Impact: Financial Perspective
A finance professional's guide to measuring effectiveness of non-profit organisations
Created byAngelino Kulendran
Last updated 9/2025
English
What you'll learn
- Background to measuring social outcomes and Impact (effectiveness)
- Differences between efficiency and effectiveness measures
- Characteristics of high performing organisations
- Utilise various measurement frameworks and methods, how to apply them to context, benefits of each technique and limitations
- Benefits and challenges to measuring effectiveness
- Understand the role of funder in capacity building and measurement for sustainable relationship with non-profit organisations
- Explore the role of finance function in the measurement process and the upskilling required for this process
Explore related topics
Course content
4 sections • 20 lectures • 1h 51m total length
Requirements
- Finance professionals
- Program and Research staff in Non-Profit Sector
- Academics interested in Non-Profit Sector
Description
Overview of Measurement
o Background to measurement of social outcomes and Impact
o Efficiency and effectiveness measurers
o The results chain
o Characteristics of high performing organisations
Measurement Frameworks and Methods
An exploration of features, application, benefits and limitations of each f the following
o Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI)
o Program Logic
o Theory of Change
o Social Accounting and Auditing
o Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
o Social Return on Investment (SROI)
o Most Significant Change
Getting ahead with Measurement
o Benefits of measurement
o Steps in choosing measurement framework
o Challenges to measurement
Capacity and Effectiveness
o Funder and capacity building
o Funder and measurement
Role of Finance function
o Paradigm shift from efficiency focus to effectiveness measures
o Upskilling and business partnering.
Why are we Studying this?
There is a growing interest in the measurement of social impact across the non-profit sector. It is therefore timely that we equip ourselves with the knowledge and skills required for measuring a non-profit organisation’s journey to reaching its mission. Non-profits play a huge role in ‘enhancing the economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of society” (as cited in C. Morgan 2012). It is therefore important that we measure these contributions both as a matter of learning and influence government policy towards the sector.
Who this course is for:
- Finance professionals wanting to partner with program staff to build performance matrices
- General interest in evaluation of Non-Profit Organisations