START HERE: The basics of social impact evaluation

What is social impact? How do you measure the social impact of creative industry interventions?

We have put together an overview of the basics for social impact evaluation in the arts and creative industries. It includes some basic introductory information on:

• Methods for developing an M&E framework

• Examples of indicator frameworks

• Tools for collecting data

Does my project have the qualities that are ALREADY KNOWN to contribute to social impact?

Did the participants in my project experience the kinds of change which are KNOWN DETERMINANTS of social impact?

How do you know if the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘maybe a bit’? That is the focus of most of the evaluation resources on our website.

1. Develop a Theory of Change (what you think is going to change because of your project) and understand the impact you want to achieve

2. Develop an evaluation framework (this includes the impacts, outputs and process aspects of your project)

   • Impact evaluation framework

   • Process evaluation framework

   • Outputs evaluation framework

3. Develop the tools for data collection (interviews, surveys, questionnaires, arts-based tools…)

   • Quantitative vs qualitative data

   • Surveys

   • Qualitative tools and qualitative methods

4. Analyse, and share results

   • Write a report

   • Communicate results

See the evidence resources on our website for references and findings about what leads to social impact.