Nonprofit leaders tend to agree:

“We need to break down silos.”

“I want to see more collaboration across departments.”

“I’d love to see more integration and resource sharing across programs.”

Why then, do we continue to have our data analysis folks working independently from the rest of the team?

Is it because, “This is the way it’s always been done?”

When I received formal academic training in doing impact assessments, collaboration looked like interviewing different experts. But at the end of the day, the researcher still developed the research methods alone. The researcher still did the analysis in a vacuum.

Many nonprofit organizations are missing an opportunity to collaborate, by not having more team members contribute to program impact assessments.

After finishing grad school and landing my first job as an environmental economist in a conservation nonprofit, I was assigned my first impact assessment.  I was told to quantify the economic impact from a wetland restoration project on a nature preserve.

Understanding which outcomes happened because of the project required extensive expertise. To do this analysis, I needed:

• An understanding of hydrology
• An understanding of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood data
• Stories from residents on their experiences with flooding
• Knowledge of bird habitat
• Deep insights around regional tourist behaviors and spending patterns
• To understand nature-based tourists and birders in particular

After more than 12 months of work and dozens and dozens of interviews, I was successful. Because of extensive stakeholder engagement, I was able to re-construct past data.

The project had measurable economic impact – it reduced flood damage to surrounding homes and had a positive impact on ecotourism.

But, I always knew it was a risky approach. Because of the complexity of the data, there were many places I could have gone wrong. From this point on, I realized – a more collaborative approach would be needed for these complex projects involving diverse expertise.

Since that first nonprofit impact assessment, I’ve changed my approach. I can attest that a collaborative approach to impact assessments not only works – but it has a multitude of benefits for nonprofits.

Here are the top 7 reasons why collaborative impact assessments are better for nonprofits.

Reason 1: Collective knowledge is needed to understand context.

In good quality impact assessments, we spend a lot of time understanding context. It takes collective knowledge to understand the context around hard-to-solve problems.

Reason 2: Diverse voices help identify the full range of potential outcomes.

The outcomes you measure in an impact assessment should support organizational goals. In mid- to large-sized nonprofits, you need a team to understand the multiple outcomes that your organization delivers.

Reason 3: You get to develop interdisciplinary evaluation methods.

When done right (in a way that integrates co-creation), a team approach to developing your methods is interdisciplinary. This helps you look across sectors and see the linkages across areas that at first might appear unconnected. This also helps you integrate both environmental and social outcomes.

Reason 4: It increases trust of the findings.

Because of reason three – working together on methods – people trust the results more. People are more likely to trust data if they were part of the team that worked on the methods and analysis.

Reason 5: It helps you find data where there are gaps.

It’s often hard to find enough high-quality data to do the evaluation. It takes a team to find creative ways to track down the right kinds of data to evaluate your impact.

Reason 6: It contributes to shared organizational learning.

We learn a lot from impact assessments. This way, your team all grows together and benefits from this shared learning about how your programs lead to better outcomes (for communities and nature)

Reason 7: The findings inform future strategic plans.

This is arguably the most important reason why it benefits nonprofits to do collaborative impact assessments. Once you learn where your organization measurably has the most impact, those findings can inform your goals in your next strategic plan.

Having a large team to collaboratively evaluate the impact of your programs may take more time upfront, but the investment in time pays off because the whole team now understands your programs better. A collaborative approach also makes it easier to communicate the results, too.

While this blog was focused on the internal benefits to nonprofit organizations to having a more collaborative approach to assessing impact, it is important to collaborate with communities who benefit from your programs as well. You can also incorporate community feedback and co-creation into impact assessments. This ensures that you hear what is relevant for communities and also, that your team can communicate in language that makes sense to communities.