How do we measure a charity’s impact? | Philippa Chong | TEDxHobart
A speaker argues that all actions, like drinking coffee, create measurable direct and indirect "ripple effects" that charities must understand through evaluation to improve outcomes. The discussion uses examples ranging from improving water quality in India to moving communities from dependency to resilience to highlight these impacts. Ultimately, understanding these ripples requires overcoming structural barriers like funding constraints and public misconceptions about evaluation overheads.
## Speakers & Context
- Presenter: Runs a consulting firm specializing in for-profit and charitable organizations, and is a board member of the Rotary Club of Hobart.
- Context: Sharing stories from the Rotary Club of Hobart to highlight the positive and negative impacts/consequences of charitable actions.
## Theses & Positions
- Every action, including charitable ones, creates "ripple effects," both positive and negative.
- Understanding the impacts—social, economic, and environmental—of actions is crucial to determine if desired outcomes are actually achieved.
- Continuous improvement in projects and lives is fundamental, relying on understanding and evaluating these impacts.
- Charitable actions must move communities from "Reliance to resilience" rather than simply providing aid.
- Evaluations should be understood as an *investment* in the community and the future.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Ripple effects:** The chain of changes stemming from an initial action, like a rock thrown into a pond.
- **For-profit purpose organizations:** The type of organizations the presenter's consulting firm specializes in, including Charities.
- **Shame/Anxiety:** Potential feelings experienced by individuals needing to ask for help.
- **Dependence:** The unintended consequence of receiving sustained food aid, leading recipients to not feel the need to produce their own food.
- **Resilience:** The desired state of self-sufficiency and control gained by empowering communities to take charge of their own lives.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **The Ripple Effect Mechanism:** Initial action $\rightarrow$ Splash (direct consequence) $\rightarrow$ Ripples (indirect consequences) $\rightarrow$ Impact change.
- **Water Quality Improvement Process (India Example):**
1. Identification of underlying cause (poor water quality) impacting child health.
2. Collaboration with local authorities and respecting local culture/risks.
3. Building necessary infrastructure (water well, pipeline, filtration system).
4. Direct Consequence: Improved child health.
5. Indirect Consequence 1: More girls attending school (improved education).
6. Indirect Consequence 2: Infrastructure scaled to serve the whole village (benefit expansion).
- **Empowerment Initiative (Food Security):** Moving communities from food aid to self-sufficiency via:
1. Providing local, scientific booklets on growing food.
2. Working with local organizations to give back "the feeling of empowerment."
3. Establishing Community Gardens where people choose what to grow, thus learning skills and achieving self-reliance.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Daily Routine Example:** Missing coffee $\rightarrow$ Irritability $\rightarrow$ Potentially reversing into garage $\rightarrow$ Being late $\rightarrow$ Paying for repairs.
- **Historical Gap:** The time since the 1960 Trieste descent until the deep-sea exploration (implied progression of scientific understanding).
- **Developmental Shift:** A village receiving food aid $\rightarrow$ (Unintended consequence) No perceived need to grow food $\rightarrow$ Rotary intervention (Food Plant Solutions) $\rightarrow$ Establishing Community Gardens.
## Named Entities
- **Rotary Club of Hobart:** The organization through which the speaker presented stories.
- **India:** Location of the initial water quality project.
- **Village (in India):** Beneficiary of the water and education improvement projects.
## Numbers & Data
- Number of struggling Australian households: **3.7 million**.
## Examples & Cases
- **Coffee Dependence:** Direct consequences include headache; indirect consequences include irritability or being late for work.
- **Health Outcome Example (India):** Poor health outcomes in a village attributed to poor water quality, despite good water existing 1 kilometer away.
- **Negative Consequence Example (Food Aid):** A village receiving food aid developed reliance on the program, ceasing efforts to grow their own food.
- **Positive Mitigation Example (India):** Clean water led to better health, which in turn led to more girls attending school, and infrastructure expansion benefiting the whole village.
- **Resilience Goal:** Moving people from dependency to self-reliance through the empowerment provided by the Food Plant Solutions initiative.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Consulting Firm:** The presenter's specialized business.
- **Food Plant Solutions:** Initiative providing nutritional booklets for growing local food.
- **Community Gardens:** Partnership activity allowing people to choose what to grow and learn skills.
- **Data capturing, data storage, and advanced data analytic tools:** Technologies available now to analyze impacts.
## References Cited
- **Studies:** Referenced data showing links between clean water/improved health $\rightarrow$ improved productivity/education.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Trade-off:** Simple outcome reporting (e.g., "we fed them") vs. comprehensive impact evaluation (recognizing reliance or expanded benefits).
- **Alternative to Aid:** Moving from pure food aid to self-sufficiency programs promoting skill-building (Community Gardens).
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- **Warning against giving up:** Hearing negative consequences should not lead to abandoning all aid programs.
- **Scope Limitation:** The Rotary initiative did *not* fix all problems, only helped increase nutrition and mitigate negative unintended consequences.
- **Measurability Barrier:** Measuring all ripples is difficult and requires collaboration, forethought, and money/expertise.
## Methodology
- **Measurement & Evaluation:** The core methodology applied to charitable works.
- **Root Cause Analysis:** Identifying the true underlying cause (e.g., poor water quality, not just a lack of medicine) before intervention.
- **Impact Analysis:** Tracking direct, indirect, and long-term consequences of interventions across multiple sectors (health $\rightarrow$ education $\rightarrow$ community stability).
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- **Primary Conclusion:** We must understand and consider all consequences—positive and negative—of charitable actions.
- **Actionable Recommendation:** Continuously improve by assessing impacts; seek to understand and mitigate negative findings.
- **Advocacy Goal:** Pushing governments and funders to allocate resources, time, and expertise for thorough evaluations.
## Implications & Consequences
- **Impact of Blind Spots:** Ignoring ripple effects can lead to unintended negative consequences like dependency.
- **Positive Impact Model:** Successful interventions create cascading, positive effects across multiple human and environmental systems.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"Imagine that that action is a rock that you throw into a pond you're going to get that initial Splash sometimes big sometimes small and then there's going to be ripples upon the Water small waves of change."*
- *"understanding the changes that actions have helps us understand the impacts we're having"*
- *"don't worry doesn't end there there was some really indirect consequences"*
- *"moving them from Reliance to resilience"*
- *"we should consider the impact of our actions"*
- *"Charities have been demonized for their administrative overheads evaluations are often part of these administrative overheads"*
- *"evaluations are an investment in you in us in our community and our future"*
- *"We care about the Ripple effects that they have on our communities"*