Add and review impact measurements
A programme’s Impact tab lists everything you measure for it: the outputs it delivers, the outcomes for the people taking part and its longer-term impact. Add measurements here when you’re planning how you’ll evidence a programme’s results.
Before you start
- To see the Impact tab you need
impact:read:outcomesandprogrammes:read:programmes. - To add measurements you also need
impact:write:outcomes. Without it, the Add impact measurement button doesn’t appear. - If you’re new to levels and measurement types, read How impact measurement works first.
Add an impact measurement
- Open All Programmes, select the programme and choose the Impact tab.
- Choose Add impact measurement.
- Enter a Name, such as “Young people reporting improved wellbeing”.
- Choose a Level: Output, Outcome or Impact.
- Choose a Measurement type: Count, Percentage, Score, Yes / No or Narrative.
- Enter a Target value if the measurement has one.
- Add a Description explaining what counts, so colleagues record it consistently.
- To have ThirdSectorBee count it for you, turn on Link this measurement to a data point, then choose a Data source and a Metric. Leave it off to keep the figure yourself.
- Choose Add measurement.
You’ll see Measurement added. It may take a moment to appear in the list.
Data points you can link to
| Data source | Metric | Counts |
|---|---|---|
| Case Management | Cases opened | Each case opened for this programme |
| Case Management | Cases closed | Each case for this programme that is closed |
| Events | Events delivered | Each event linked to the programme and marked as counting towards impact, when it’s created |
| Events | People reached through events | The capacity of those events when they were created: places offered, not attendance |
| Finance | Income received | Marked coming soon; it can’t be chosen yet |
Note: Cases are counted only when they carry a link to the programme, which is set through the API or an integration rather than the Create Case form. Closing a case in the app doesn’t currently pass the programme on, so Cases closed may not count closures made on the case page. Check a linked case figure against your case list before reporting it.
Read the Impact tab
Measurements are grouped under Output, Outcome and Impact. For each one you’ll see:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Name | The measurement’s name |
| Type | Its measurement type |
| Target | The target value, or a dash if none was set |
| Linked value | A Linked to … badge for linked measurements, and the Current figure. Narrative measurements have no figure |
A measurement kept by hand shows Current: 0 until someone updates it.
Change or remove a measurement
There’s no edit or delete control on the Impact tab. Output measurements created as programme objectives can be renamed, retargeted, updated or removed from the programme’s Edit page. Outcome and impact measurements, and linked outputs the objectives editor doesn’t recognise, can only be changed through the Impact API.
If something goes wrong
- Couldn’t load impact measurements.: refresh the page and try again.
- Failed to add measurement. Please try again.: nothing was saved. If you linked a data point, check it isn’t one marked coming soon.
Next: view the impact dashboard.