Monitoring and evaluating social impacts in Australia

Abstract: Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) allows people to learn from past experiences, improve service delivery, plan and allocate resources and demonstrate results as part of accountability to stakeholders. M&E also assists in keeping projects on track, providing a basis for reassessing priorities and creating an evidence base for current and future projects There is a growing interest in the measurement of social impact across the business, government and nonprofit sectors. In recognising the role that non-profit organisations play in ‘enhancing the economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of society’, the Australian Government has recently focused on improving the measurements of social impact This report describes the main monitoring and evaluating frameworks and methods used in Australia which include some assessment of social impact. Each of the following are discussed in terms of an overview of how it works (in terms of M&E), the benefits and limitations, examples of organisations using the technique and where to find further resources.