How to stop unintentional "impact-washing" in your charity: impact measurement made simple
- Helen Vaterlaws
- Mar 6, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 3
No one sets out to impact-wash. It usually happens slowly, when a team is busy and the pressure to look good for a funder or a board report takes over. You end up with vanity metrics, numbers that look impressive in a glossy brochure but don't actually tell you if your service is working.
Having been both a scientist and an operational leader, I’ve seen how easy it is for reporting to drift away from reality. This quick guide is about tidying your system to ensure your data stays honest, human, and useful.
Want the deeper dive? Read the full guide: When Impact Measurement Misleads.
Five steps to a tidier, more honest impact system
If you suspect your data is becoming expensive noise, use these five shifts to get back on track.
1. Name your "North Star" outcome
Be brave enough to name the one thing you actually exist to achieve. If a metric doesn't point directly to that goal, it’s just decoration.
Try this: Set a 15-minute window this week to ask your leadership: "If we could only prove one thing to be true about our impact, what would it be?"
2. Co-create the proof
Buy-in doesn’t happen at a board meeting; it happens on the frontline. Ask your staff and the people you support what "better" actually looks like to them.
Try this: Ask one beneficiary this week: "What change has mattered most to you?" Their language is often more powerful than any KPI.
3. Choose metrics that matter (not just ones that flatter)
List your current metrics. If you’re only tracking the things that always go well, you aren't learning. You need to track the things that would keep you up at night if they went wrong.
Try this: Identify one flattering metric you can swap for a more meaningful one this month.
4. Move training into the real world
Ditch the long slide decks and the data theory. Show your team how to use data to solve a problem they had yesterday.
Try this: In your next team meeting, look at one piece of data together and ask: "Does this help us make a better decision for next week?"
5. Be ruthless with "dead" data
Every six months, look at what you’re collecting. If a metric hasn't sparked an action or a conversation in that time, cut it. It’s better to have three numbers you trust than thirty you ignore.
Try this: Mark your calendar now for a data tidy in six months' time.
Next steps
You don’t need a fancy new platform to stop impact-washing. You just need a tidy, agreed-upon set of measures and the habit of dropping the ones that no longer serve you.
Want the deeper dive? Read the full guide: When Impact Measurement Misleads.
Want to spot the gaps? Take my free 2-minute impact self-assessment.
Change doesn’t start with a workshop; it starts with one honest conversation.
Note: Examples are for illustrative purposes only; no official affiliation with the organisations or tools mentioned is claimed. AI systems can be unpredictable, so always keep personal or sensitive data out of third-party tools and ensure your implementation follows your own organisation’s data protection policies.
