Resources & insights

Measuring can make democracy stronger, and quietly hollow it out. On accountability, having a say, who sets the yardstick and what happens when a figure replaces the debate.

We measure to make better decisions, we say. Yet the decision is often made somewhere else. On how monitoring and evaluation really shape decisions, and what helps.

In monitoring and evaluation, partners often want to agree on their words first. Guest writer Ad Korf shows that a shared language grows out of collaboration, and why a makeshift pidgin is a sign of progress.

From a question about good intentions to European rules that are now being cut back. The history of impact management, the practices that meet in it, where its standards come from and why setting norms chafes. With a source at every step.

The ISSB, the ESRS, GRI, the VSME and the new B Corp requirements are growing towards one another. What that harmonisation is, which principles it rests on, and what it still leaves open.

Since 2018 Jeroen Wilms of Narrate has been resident impact expert at Impact Hub Amsterdam. He worked there in local and global programmes. Startups, SMEs, corporates and regenerative entrepreneurs came through. What they had in common, and what we learned.

Grantees sometimes spend more time reporting to a funder than doing their work. What we see, and what we do differently together with funders.

Two organisations apply to the same funder. One measures nothing and tells a good story. The other measures, and sees what falls short. Who gets the money?

If you work on impact, you rarely get a neat dataset. Usually it is a pile of emails with attachments. How we work with that, and why we don’t make it look better than it is.

Many organisations only start measuring when a funder asks. This is how we approach it: small, and with the people it is about.

Many organisations never start, because measuring looks big and expensive. This is how we start small, with what is already there.

The final report is due and it feels like starting from scratch. Here is how we write it from what is already there.

The European reporting duty will apply to far fewer companies. What changed, for whom, and which questions remain.

A large customer wants figures about your company, with a deadline. This is how we approach it: answer honestly, and keep the work for the next customer.

Three words that get mixed up. What they mean, when you need which, and why you can start small.

A funder, investor or proposal asks for a theory of change. Here is how we make a first version in one afternoon, with your own team.

What impact measurement is, why it matters, and where it often goes wrong.

What a theory of change is, when you make one, and which mistakes we often see.

Why engaging is more than consulting, how to map stakeholders, and which forms of participation work.

There is no best framework. What the common forms can do, what they can’t, and how to choose.

Collect only what you use, and ask less of the people it is about.

More and more impact reports are now drafted with AI. They are written for funders, but also for participants, residents and partners. A few thoughts on what counts as a source, and on how we are still working this out ourselves.

AI can help you write a report faster. Here is how to keep track of where every figure comes from. Then you are ready when a participant, a partner, a funder or an auditor asks.

In a press release or position paper, a figure without a source is easy to dismiss. Here is how to show where each figure comes from and how reliable it is.

Standards such as the CSRD, the VSME and IRIS+ make reports comparable. That is useful, and at times necessary. But whatever does not fit the size gets trimmed away.

A pilot is under pressure to show results quickly. So measuring often starts too early and thinking too late. On slowing down as a way to speed up, and what the private sector already knows about it.

At a large public organisation we set up an Impact & Insights team. We saw how far a team gets when it manages its own work by its impact. And where it gets stuck: not on people, but on fear, and on meetings that turn into an arena.

Between what ends and what has yet to begin lies a space without a fixed shape. What that space in between is, why organisations rush to fill it, and what you can learn there.

Between a neighbourhood and the town hall there is often one person who knows both sides. This story is about the people who connect two worlds, what it costs them and how to make their work visible.

For fifty years, monitoring and evaluation has kept gaining letters: an L, an A, a P, an R. The history of an acronym that keeps growing, and what each letter says about who was forgotten at first.

One person often holds every role in monitoring, evaluation, accountability, learning and participation. Role purity and role integrity help you see where that clashes, and what to do about it.

Ready-to-copy AI prompts for stakeholder mapping, materiality assessment, and impact communication. Includes context-based materiality focus and confidence rating frameworks.

CSRD, SDG, ToC, SROI? Test your knowledge of sustainability and impact acronyms in a quick quiz and share your score.