How Can You Ensure Your Impact Evaluation Will Reflect Your Achievements? Tips From a Friendly Evaluator

September 19th 2025

by Julie Sané-Pezet
Founder at Lume Impact

Let me tell you a secret. In my wildest dreams I have superpowers. I will spare you the list of reasons why I believe teleportation would make a massive difference to my life but I will tell you why there hasn’t been a single project where I haven’t wished I could do miracles. ✨

In over 10 years working in the social innovation space, I have kept bumping into inspiring teams whose visions were pretty much to change the world for the better. You might find this cheesy or naive but you will have to admit that there is nothing more motivating than working with passionate people.

Passion is contagious. So much so that it can feel like a superpower but it’s sometimes lacking the extra magic needed to turn ambitions into reality. I have seen incredible teams crumble down by lack of investment in their organisational culture, high potential projects get completely sidetracked because of operational hiccups and great work being overlooked for there was no tangible proof of impact to showcase. This hits even closer to home when happening to smaller organisations that don’t have the resources to apply to big certifications or run expensive data-collection campaigns. 

What feels frustrating is that, more often than not, smaller teams do better than bigger organisations. They know their target audience well and have leaner operations that force them to stay focused on their niche. They are also agile enough to adapt fast to a changing context. So why doesn’t it show in reports? 

Avoiding the Data Drama 

Having completed my share of impact evaluations over time, both as an external evaluator and for my own company, I have learnt the hard way that you cannot make up for missing data. Let me put things straight. There is no magic methodology or crystal ball available on the market that can help you prove your impact if it hasn’t been tracked. In impact reporting, just like in any reporting practice, insights come from data and the more you overlook key metrics, the better you sink your own ship. Evaluators are not rigid monsters who don’t understand the complexity of your mission.They simply cannot help you if you reach out to them too late with little data to report on. Here are a few tips  to ensure your hard work shows.

1. Invest in your strategy

The biggest mistake you could make would be to assume impact monitoring happens organically along the way. To collect insights you need to reflect on what success will look like - quite literally. Beyond the obvious results you could expect, what weak signals will tell you you’re headed in the right direction? What will be the ripple effects of your success? Based on these assumptions, put together a strategy to include Key Impact Indicators (KIIs) monitoring in your operations.

2. Focus on convincing data

I don’t know who needs to hear this but Typeforms and other feedback surveys are far from being sufficient when tracking impact. There are dozens of cognitive biases and behavioral patterns to account for to design an effective survey. Even then, there will be other metrics needed to validate your achievements. If you’ve ever decided to upgrade your Uber review from 4 stars to 5 to avoid writing a justifying paragraph explaining why the ride wasn’t worth the best grade, you know exactly what I’m talking about - and funders too.  

3. Upskill your team

Teaching a man how to fish is always the way to go. Your team members will probably do most of the heavy lifting for impact tracking so you want them to know what they are doing. From including them in the co-creation of your impact strategy to investing in key training sessions on Insights Collection or Design Thinking, you can ensure monitoring becomes a must rather than a bore.

4. Plan for monitoring check-ins

Impact happens during your project so why would you wait until the end of it to improve on data-collection, potentially missing out on KIIs? The same way you plan for regular team checkins, you want to plan for monitoring milestones where you assess your data collection’s effectiveness, decide on ways to gain accuracy and discuss strategies to overcome potential challenges you’ve identified.

5. Embrace the process

Last but not least, don’t panic! Some of the assumptions you’ve made early on will not be validated by the data collected while some challenges will only reveal themselves halfway in. It’s all an iterative process and, if anything, this will prove that you are doing things right. By design, some weaknesses will become apparent and some strengths will be revealed. This is the beauty of this process. It’s a mirror pointed at your organisation that will help it flourish and trigger change at scale. That is the real magic. 🔮

If you want support in setting up or improving your impact strategy, I can help you.

From full strategic support to targeted workshops, we can find the perfect format together. Just book a 30 minute call below. It’s free and will help you gain clarity on your needs.