Centre for Social Impact delivers world-first impact measurement solution

National research and education centre, the Centre for Social Impact has today launched a world-first impact measurement solution that is estimated to bring $300 million in benefit to Australia’s social impact sector.

The initiative, Amplify Social Impact Online (Amplify Online) has been developed by a team of researchers over three years, with the purposes of measuring impact in the for-purpose sector.

According to Associate Professor Graham Brown, director of the Centre for Social Impact at UNSW, “Every year, $510 billion is spent on Australian community sector programs, without reliable measures of impact or consistent benchmarking. This is the first time that these organisations will have a verified process for identifying impact, at low or no cost.”

Conservative estimates reveal that Australian charities and not-for-profits that use the tool will save up to $90,000 per project.

The Centre for Social Impact identified more than 500 outcome indicators that have been fed into Indicator Engine, the first part Amplify Online’s platform. This tool will collate and categorise responses to assist organisations in measuring their impact in any specific initiative, and optimise the programs that are delivering the most impact.

“For more than half a century, for-purpose organisations have been calling for a reliable and scalable way to measure their social impact within the community,” said Brown.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges for any charity, and now technology has finally caught up to provide a solution."

Organisations can use the platform to measure social outcomes including standard of living, mental health and disaster preparedness among their stakeholder base.

According to Amplify Online project manager Rose Ahearn, “Amplify levels the playing field so smaller organisations can keep up as impact reporting requirements continue to grow for certain grants, partnerships and funding.”

The second phase to follow Indicator Engine is Yardstick, which will offer automated statistical data analytics, which is currently under construction.