In the charity sector, impact is everything | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional

In the charity sector, impact is everything | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional: Achieving good is about outcomes – the changes or benefits that result from what a charity or project provides. It means really making a difference. It's not just about the number of signatures on a petition or lives touched or mentoring sessions delivered, but the effect a service has on people's lives. And these effects have to be additional to what might have happened otherwise.

This is surely what drives us as a sector. And if we don't try to get a handle on it we cannot know if we are really making a difference or work out how to improve what we do – instead relying on anecdote and stories, and potentially misallocating precious resources.