The spirit of collaboration, innovation, and excellence took centre stage at the Tenth Annual SIMNA Awards ceremony on Thursday 28 November. Over 100 participants from across Australia came together online to honour this year’s social impact measurement superstars.

SIMNA Sydney Organising Committee Co-Chair Maxine Morrison lead us through the first half of the ceremony, which opened with a video address from Hon Dr Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment.

Social impact measurement is a bit like a giant dot-to-dot puzzle. The more dots we have, and the more people we have connecting those dots, the better picture we have about what works and what doesn’t.

Hon Dr Andrew Leigh

Looking back, looking forward

This was followed by a thought-provoking discussion between Adele Stowe-Lindner, Jess Dart, Poppy Wise and Simon Faivel on their reflections on 10 years of the SIMNA Awards, the shifts we have seen and where social impact measurement is heading.

How do you know if you’re ‘doing good’? One of the first questions you need to ask is what are you trying to do in the first place. There is a very wide interpretation of what ‘doing good’ is. You may be trying to achieve systems change or you may be trying to help an individual today in a crisis situation.

Adele Stowe-Lindner

They shared the inspiration they take from lyricists, poets and writers to tell powerful stories and explore nuance. There is a ‘dance’ between simplicity, complexity and proportionality.

My favourite part of the job is coming together with a team to face a set of questions to hash them out, and then go back to the evidence to see if we were right. That is one example of balancing intuition and evidence.

Poppy Wise

Looking forward, they shared opportunities and challenges in this space and highlighted the ongoing importance of impact measurement.

While there are many sectors that are declining, the social impact sector is growing. Organisations need to have impact measurement frameworks – so we can learn. It’s not just about showing what we do. We want to have more impact and to do that we need to learn and adapt.

Jess Dart

Awards presentations

Following a short break, Maxine passed the baton to Elliott Tester, SIMNA Victoria Organising Committee Chair and SIMNA Board Member. We heard from this year’s finalists before the winners and runners up were announced for each category:

-Social Impact Measurement in Funding, Investment and Grantmaking

-Outstanding Collaboration in Social Impact Measurement

-Innovative Design in Social Impact Measurement

-Excellence in Social Impact Measurement

Thank you to our Award presenters, Marita O’Toole from Urbis, Jess Dart from Clear Horizon Consulting, Simon Faivel from SVA Consulting and Jen Riley from SmartyGrants.

Thank you

A massive thank you to everyone who made the 2024 SIMNA Awards possible.

To our judging panel for taking the time to score all the entries and provide feedback to everyone who submitted an entry. 

To our Awards sponsors for your incredible generosity. The 2024 SIMNA Awards are supported by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and our award sponsors, Clear Horizon, SmartyGrants, SVA Consulting, and Urbis’ Social and Economic Advisory Unit. 

And finally, to everyone who took the time to apply for the 2024 SIMNA Awards for sharing the outstanding work you are doing to evidence social change.