DutchCulture aims to contribute to major societal goals with their activities, such as international cooperation, artistic development, and the positioning of the Dutch art and culture sector abroad. These are true impact goals: creating change for the audience and society.
Measuring that impact shows what you achieve and helps you learn where you can improve. It also aids in external accountability to, for example, financiers and politicians.
Want to know more about the importance of impact? Read our article on the meaning of impact for culture.
Measuring Impact Starts with Asking Questions
By determining in advance what you want to know and measure and which audience you want to reach, you can formulate questions. The answers to these questions form the data you can use to measure. Before you start measuring impact, it is important to understand the factors that lead to impact.
DutchCulture inventoried their 'input.' These are factors such as time, money, and 'in the cultural sector, also blood, sweat, and tears,' according to communications advisor Vinod Singh. Alongside 'input,' there are the actual activities, for which DutchCulture carefully defines factors such as the theme and target audience of an activity.
Once the activity has taken place, Vinod looks at the 'output.' This is the moment when measurement begins. Output includes data such as reach figures and data that requires surveying your audience about their appreciation for the activity.
"At DutchCulture, we constantly ask ourselves: “Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things in the right way, and what is our added value for our target audience?"
DutchCulture collects this data using Cigarbox, a tool specialized in visualizing, managing, and increasing the societal impact of projects.
This data is entered into a theory of change, or change strategy, a model that shows how your activity leads to the change you envision. Learn how to do this in the self-study module Measuring Impact from the DEN Academy.
Effect
Many organizations keep track of visitor numbers and conduct customer satisfaction surveys. DutchCulture goes further by linking the data around output to their objectives. The question then is: what does our audience do with our output, and does this contribute to our objectives? These are direct effects, which the audience is asked about after an activity.
Long-Term Impact
However, whether DutchCulture truly contributes to the major impact goals they envision can only be measured over a longer period. Vinod describes impact measurement as: ‘Following up with or re-engaging your audience. Asking them whether they have done something with the outcome.’ To interpret this, Vinod uses all the information from the earlier steps. Over time, these insights lead to refining activities to create more impact.
Tips from DutchCulture's Experience
Start Small and Keep It Simple
First apply impact measurement to a specific project or consider a single factor to investigate.
Incorporate Impact Measurement from the Start
Unlike an evaluation afterward, it is important to start impact measurement at the very beginning of a project. Only then can you determine what change you bring about.
Impact Measurement = Involving Your Entire Organization
The greatest insights come from thinking about impact collectively and discussing the findings with the entire organization.
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