Introducing the Impact Journey

In October last year, hivve launched the Impact Journey™ at the fifth annual Impact Symposium. Let’s walk through the concept and see how it can support your impact ambitions!

What is the Impact Journey?

The impact journey is hivve’s proprietary framework that helps individuals and organisations evaluate their impact maturity and identify how advanced their ability is to understand, manage and communicate the impact of their activities. They can use the framework to plan and manage progress along their journey, working towards their impact objectives by using hivve’s tried-and-tested methodology.

Everybody is at a different stage on their impact journey. While some may be new to the concept and are looking to get started with key foundations in the Discovery phase, others may have already developed a baseline understanding of the core concepts in the Understanding phase and begun to develop processes around Engagement and Management. They may even have moved further along to Optimisation and Amplification. Learn more about each phase on our dedicated web page.

hivve has worked closely over the last fifteen years with our diverse base of customers and partners to develop, refine and implement the Impact Journey. Our framework is informed by a wide range of sources, from the competitive research impact environment within academia in locations such as Australia, Hong Kong and the UK, and the multifaceted reporting challenges within NGOs across regions such as South-East Asia, to sustainability benchmarking of global big pharma businesses.

Throughout this process, we have developed a rigorous and systematic approach to impact reporting that encompasses advisory services, comprehensive resources and software solutions designed to build confidence and trust with stakeholders at all levels within an organisation.

We take a step-by-step approach to working with our clients to achieve their goals for robust impact management and reporting into routine operations. A core part of hivve’s intellectual property is our comprehensive taxonomy of impact terms and typologies that supports internal capability building, impact education, robust reporting and external communication for both internal teams and collaborating partners. This drives alignment and enables aggregated data reporting across areas, projects and programmes over time.

Central to success is our evidence-based approach to verifying impact claims and ensuring accuracy and credibility at every step. This helps management to confidently stand behind public-facing reports and disclosures and focus on amplifying the great work being achieved while incorporating learnings for continuous improvement.

Why do we need the impact journey?

With only 17% of SDG targets on track to be met by 2030, and 40% of required SDG data not even in existence, the need for high-quality impact data is paramount.

However the concept is new for most people and organisations. Whilst impact reporting has been around since the logic model was invented in the 1980s from the Kellogg’s Foundation, there is still  huge variability in terms of the quality of impact reporting from organisations.

Businesses increasingly realise that they need to be more transparent with their activities. They are also keen to improve impact reporting to properly reflect the difference they are having whilst also ensuring that their stakeholders feel confident behind the claims being made.

The hivve Impact Journey has evolved into a standardised model to support people and teams along their impact paths.

We started off working with not-for-profits who wanted to demonstrate how they were delivering on their mission. This often involved defining Theories of Change and SROI calculations.

This grew into working with research organisations/universities, where diverse outputs from research are being used to make the world a better place. UK, Australia and Hong Kong research funders have led the charge in articulating to tax payers how the investment in research is making a difference, with evidence-based case studies being used to make the business case for the annual block grants into Higher Education Institutions.

Over time, increasingly competitive grant funding is also tied to being able to demonstrate the positive outcomes being generated from organisations, programmes and projects.

Within impact funds, impact reporting is increasingly important as donors – whether corporate or individual philanthropists – wish to ensure their donations are achieving positive sustainabiity outcomes, while impact reporting standards are currently very nascent. Drives for increased transparency and robust reporting are on the rise as people are generally becoming more wary of greenwashing. This is often prioritised by boards that are concerned about negative public reaction to the claims being made and a desire to better understand how they are delivering on their missions.

In parallel, we have a generation coming into the workforce that wants to see organisations that “demonstrate their commitment to a broader set of societal challenges such as sustainability, climate change, and hunger“. Here is where we see an opportunity for individuals to be recognised and showcase their tangible contributions and impact, from the projects or programmes they run to an overall connection with the organisation’s impact.

Most people who come to us are looking to improve their impact reporting practices to be excellent, but may still be figuring out their maturity. This might place them at the left, in the Discovery stage of the impact journey, where travellers will “learn about impact, its value, the landscape, how others are doing it, and build confidence to continue your journey” .

Others might understand what impact reporting is, are already doing it but want to improve it, which can place them further along the path.

By working with the resources, services and products that hivve has developed to clearly identify your current position, the gaps in requirements, and how best to address your needs we can support a positive impact journey. 

Where do we go from here?

Stay tuned over the coming months as we explore the stages of the Impact Journey framework in more depth, examining some of the tools and techniques, while explaining how you can progress further along your own impact journey. And don’t forget to visit our dedicated web page to learn more.