Impact measurement among social purpose organizations: which practices are associated with useful, non-burdensome impact measurement

Purpose The benefits and challenges of impact measurement for social purpose organizations are well known. Measuring impact can equip managers with information to further their organizations’ purposes. Measurement can also be costly and time-consuming. The many tools and techniques give managers a choice; however, the techniques are not appropriately scaled to the financial and human resources available. This study aims to identify and validate a minimum set of essential impact measurement practices associated with useful, non-burdensome impact measurement among social purpose organizations. Design/methodology/approach The authors use data from a sample of social purpose organizations that answered questions about impact measurement practices based on the common approach to impact measurement’s common foundations model and three questions about impact measurement’s perceived benefits and value. The authors use factor analysis (first confirmatory factor analysis and then exploratory factor analysis) to identify the minimum set of impact measurement practices associated with the useful, non-burdensome impact measurement. Findings The authors found that the Common Foundations 21 practices are correlated and consistent with the perception that measurement is useful and not burdensome. However, the model that underpins the Common Foundations had a poor fit when tested with confirmatory factor analysis. The authors present and validate a revised model with a high goodness of fit. The revised model identifies ten impact measurement practices that, when implemented, are highly correlated with useful, non-burdensome measurement. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically examine a minimum set of impact measurement practices associated with the benefits of measurement while reducing the burden. These findings are of practical value to social purpose organizations looking to benefit from impact measurement whose financial and human resources are limited. The authors offer them ten essential impact measurement practices. The findings offer a validated instrument for assessing if an organization’s impact measurement practices will likely lead to useful, non-burdensome impact measurement.