Giving Compass' Take:

• AVPN discusses how the different tools of measuring impact have been inconsistent in terms of their "practical application." Are we holding those at the top accountable?

• The suggestion here is to be better at responding to feedback to constituents and to detach evaluation from specific goals (which can skew results).

• Here's why it's also important to include a gender lens in impact measurement.

While there may seem to be many ways of measuring social impact, the truth is that there is increasing convergence in the approaches being advocated across different sectors. The Social and Natural Capital Coalitions, predominantly aimed at corporates are very similar to the Impact Management project, mainly aimed at impact investors, which is very similar to the principles of Social Value supported by Social Value International. This convergence has not yet filtered through to increasing practice and even less to the use of data to influence decisions.

This is a significant problem as, in general, the people who experience social impact cannot hold those delivering it to account — at least not to the same extent as is the case with financial impact. Managing financial impact has an ecosystem that protects investors — from standard approaches to accounting, audit and analysis, to active press coverage and well-developed legislation. This system has been key to unleashing the increase in wealth that we have seen over the last century and yet we appear unwilling to implement a similar level of accountability for those experiencing social impact. Not only to protect them but also to ensure that, like finance, we are creating as much social value as we can with the resources we have.

Read the full article about making impact measurement work by Jeremy Nicholls at avpn.asia.