Data is at the heart of how social impact organisations demonstrate their value, but collecting, interpreting, and using it responsibly is far from straightforward. 

In our fifth Impact Measurement Roundtable for the Social Enterprises, practitioners came together to share their experiences, challenges, and practical strategies around data collection and program design. 

The conversation was nuanced, insightful, and a helpful reminder that we’re all navigating similar terrain.

How Are We Actually Collecting Data?

The group kicked off by sharing how their organisations currently gather data. For many, it starts with the straightforward stuff: attendance numbers, hours delivered, volunteer counts. These quantitative metrics are relatively easy to capture and form the backbone of most impact reports. 

But as the conversation quickly revealed, they only tell part of the story.

The harder question is how to capture the quality of what’s happening:

• How do you measure whether someone felt a sense of belonging? 
• Whether a program reduced their isolation? 
• Whether a volunteer felt like they made a difference? 

Several participants spoke about using anonymous surveys with both clients and volunteers, not just to gather feedback, but to understand the emotional connection people have to a program and what they’re genuinely getting out of it.

The Challenge of Measuring What Matters Most

There was strong agreement in the room that the things most worth measuring are often the hardest to capture. Concepts such as social connectedness, cultural belonging, improved mental well-being, and community integration are central to the work many of us do, but they resist easy quantification.

A few key insights emerged from the group on how to navigate this:

• Focus on what’s within your sphere of influence: Not everything can or should sit within your measurement framework. Some of the biggest challenges program participants face (poor mental health, unemployment, systemic disadvantage) are not problems your program alone can solve. Being clear about what your intervention can offer and measuring it honestly is more valuable than overreaching.
• Think carefully about language: The words you use in surveys and data collection tools matter enormously. “Improved sense of well-being” lands very differently from “improved mental health”. Being precise and considering framing helps ensure you’re capturing what you actually intend to measure, and that it’s appropriate for your audience.
• Use Likert scales to build a baseline: A simple “On a scale of 1–10, I feel…” question asked at the start and end of a program or multiple points throughout gives you comparable data points over time. These units of measurement become the building blocks of your impact narrative.

One-Off Events vs Ongoing Programs

One discussion thread that resonated widely was the difference between measuring impact from one-off events versus ongoing programs. With a recurring program, data accumulates over time, and patterns emerge. With a single event, the window is narrow, and the constraints can be significant.

For those working in school settings, especially, ethics approvals, parental consent, and child safety considerations create real barriers to data collection. 

Practical suggestions from the group included:

• gathering short, simple written responses from participants on the day
• seeking feedback from teachers and staff who can speak to the observed impact
• using verbatim, anonymised quotes to bring the experience to life.

The message was clear: use what you can get, and don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Sometimes Less Is More

A theme that wove through the entire conversation was the value of restraint. There can be a temptation, especially when preparing for funding applications or impact reports, to try to capture everything. But a long, complex survey is less likely to be completed, less likely to yield quality responses, and harder to analyse meaningfully.

Starting small, being selective, and growing your data collection practice over time are valuable strategies that can help you build your data collection efforts. Knowing what you’re trying to measure, why you’re measuring it, and whether the data you collect will actually be usable in the way you need, should drive every decision.

Ethics, Privacy, and People First

One of the most important threads of the conversation centred on our responsibility when gathering data and ensuring we’re asking the right questions before we even get started:

• Is it appropriate to capture this?
• Have privacy and cultural safety considerations been addressed?
• Whose story is this to share?

Dignity and relationship building must come first. Jumping straight into surveys and data collection before trust has been established can sometimes do more harm than good. The balance between duty of care, ethical responsibility, and the practical need to demonstrate impact requires ongoing attention.

There was also a call for professional honesty: sometimes, we simply cannot measure something. Small sample sizes, complex variables, and external factors beyond our control mean that not everything can be evidenced. Acknowledging that and being willing to change direction are marks of integrity, not failure.

Beyond Numbers: Telling the Right Story With the Right Data

Finally, the group discussed the important detail that data doesn’t have to mean spreadsheets and statistics. 

Visuals, videos, photographs, quotes, and case studies are all legitimate and powerful ways to communicate impact. The numbers give you credibility; the stories give you connection. 

The best impact reporting does both.

This ongoing peer learning community continues to provide a valuable space for leaders to share challenges, swap tools, and develop new approaches together. The conversations will continue in our next and final roundtable.

Keen to learn more? Read about our previous roundtables