Can you measure impact?

Christian Grünhaus answered this question in his keynote at the OSGS (akronym for Austrian Donation Quality Seal) forum in short: "Yes, you can". But then came the central question: "What do fundraising NPOs want to achieve and how do they represent this success?" Here it became apparent that performance indicators and activity indicators still play the main role. How to do it better was shown using the proven approach of the NPO Competence Center, with the concepts of the impact chain, the impact model, the impact box, and the impact oriented controlling box. Particularly worth mentioning and thought-provoking, however, was the fact that impact plays no role in the Austrian Donation Seal of Approval. Among the hundreds of audit questions, it is probably discussed whether logbooks are written but not whether there was a social impact. Christian Grünhaus concluded his presentation with suggestions for the further development of the Donation Seal of Approval in the direction of impact.

Other presentations also dealt with impact, such as the one by Stephanie Müller (Phineo) on impact communication and by Rupert Roniger (Light for the world) on impact and donation security. Martina Ziegerer (ZEWO) spoke about the consequences of the Covid19 pandemic for Swiss fundraising organisations. It is worth mentioning that the pandemic led to a strengthening of solidarity in the personal environment but to a decrease at the level of society as a whole in Switzerland.