Impact and accountability for municipalities

Organisations we work with

What you get

• Indicators that fit your planning and control cycle

  Objectives and policy indicators in your budget and annual accounts that say something about outcomes, not only about activities. This also works for a Flemish multi-year plan under the BBC

• Subsidies with clear expectations

  Agreements with local organisations about the outcomes you fund, and accountability that asks for no more than you will use

• Broad prosperity made concrete

  From the ambition in the coalition agreement to a small set of indicators for your neighbourhoods and themes

• Information the council can use

  Clear reporting for council information letters, committee meetings and the annual accounts, with honest conclusions

• Residents and partners involved

  Shared goals agreed with residents, local organisations and partners, for example in a neighbourhood approach or a participation process

Why we do what we do

Read the film as text

1. We all want to know
2. our place in the world.
3. Thin grey lines join dots into a web.
4. We like to believe that what we do is part of something larger.
5. It is.
6. Together we make our surroundings, our brands, our communities.
7. We shape the work of others, as they shape ours.
8. The web grows dense.
9. We live in one web of cause and consequence.
10. Each path tells a story, part of a larger narrative.
11. A system of meaning.
12. So what is our impact?
13. Whose lives do we touch?
14. What changed? For whom? How much? And what part was ours?
15. Intended or not, for better or worse.
16. Knowing that changes what you do next.
17. A dark line draws a path through the web. Impact management helps you see it, steer it, and use it.
18. A large word: Lead. A purple path runs through the web. Lead with purpose, and fund your mission.
19. A large word: Improve. A green path runs through the web. Learn what doesn’t work and design for better.
20. A large word: Engage. A blue-green path runs through the web. Share your story, and bring others into it.
21. A large word: Account. A blue path runs through the web. State your claim, and prove it.
22. A large word: Discover. A yellow path runs through the web. Find your next impact before it happens.
23. “How do you measure impact?”
24. It sounds hard.
25. It isn’t.
26. It’s not about the how.
27. It’s about
28. Portraits of people fill the screen.
29. A large word: Who.
30. About rights-holders, whose lives are touched.
31. And stakeholders, whose choices shape them.
32. The people stand side by side, at the same height. A wave of colour runs through the web. Every voice, every perspective, equally weighed.
33. The web turns many colours. Pluriform and equivalent.
34. Who determines what.
35. And what determines how.
36. That’s it. No more, no less.
37. We count what can be counted, and listen to the rest.
38. Coloured paths wind across the web. We find the stories that connect the dots, and make sense of the whole.
39. We love our craft:
40. to ask the questions,
41. to measure what matters,
42. and narrate what works.
43. One dark path remains. Let’s reveal your path.
44. The word narrate, with the line: impact in numbers and stories.

What we often hear

• “Our policy indicators mostly count activities. They say little about what changes for residents.”

  We help you link objectives to outcome indicators that fit your planning and control cycle, so the budget and annual accounts tell a clearer story

• “We fund many local organisations, and each grant asks for a different report. What do they achieve together?”

  We help you set up a shared outcome framework for subsidies, so organisations report on comparable outcomes and you can see what your funding adds up to

• “The council asks what the social domain delivers, but the data sits with care providers, neighbourhood teams and departments.”

  We help you bring the most important information together and turn it into a council information letter or report that answers the question

• “Broad prosperity is in the coalition agreement, but nobody knows how to make it measurable for our municipality.”

  We help you choose a small set of indicators that fit your own priorities, using public data that already exists where possible

• “We ask for Social Return in tenders, but can’t see what it really delivers.”

  We help you set requirements that suit the contract and agree with suppliers how they report results, so you can see what Social Return achieves beyond the agreed effort

What you may be wondering

• Won’t this be yet another report for our partners?

  We first look at what partners already send you and what you use. Usually something can go. The aim is to collect once and use it more often.

• Does this fit our planning and control cycle?

  Yes. We work with the budget, the annual accounts and the council briefings you already have. No second system on the side.

• Do you know municipalities?

  The City of Amsterdam and the OBA are among our clients. A written-up municipal case is not on the site yet. Feel free to ask us for the story.

To read

• How impact management shapes democracy

  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.