Impact

The portion of changes in outputs and outcomes that result from the organization’s activities.

Our definition of impact is consistent with global consensus builders (including the Impact Management Project and work from the Rockefeller Foundation) but differs from other definitions. For example, Innowave defines impact as “the intended and unintended (positive or otherwise) changes (outputs, outcomes) that occur across the organization (within and/or across its programs) and with its stakeholders (including users, clients, partners, etc.) over a period of time (short term, long term) as a result of the organization’s activities.” The key difference is that the Common Approach does not place impact after outputs and outcomes. Impact is the outputs and outcomes.