Bir­git Siep­mann, Impact Entre­pre­neur­ship & Social Inno­va­tion Man­ag­er for the City of Munich – talks about why clear impact mea­sure­ment is essen­tial for dri­ving social inno­va­tion and how the city sup­ports founders tack­ling real soci­etal chal­lenges. Her core mes­sage:  invest in impact man­age­ment ear­ly. It sharp­ens your deci­sions inter­nal­ly – and boosts your cred­i­bil­i­ty exter­nal­ly.

Bir­git Siep­mann, Impact Entre­pre­neur­ship & Social Inno­va­tion Man­ag­er, City of Munich, Depart­ment of Labor and Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment | Start­up & Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Ser­vices

What role does impact play in your work?

“Impact is at the core of every­thing we do. Every deci­sion con­nects back to our mis­sion: dri­ving social inno­va­tion in Munich togeth­er with our impact star­tups and net­work part­ners. For us, impact isn’t just a met­ric – it’s the lens through which we shape strat­e­gy and make choic­es. When we under­stand and mea­sure the results of our ini­tia­tives, we can clear­ly see what works and where we need to adjust.

Com­mu­ni­cat­ing our impact is just as impor­tant. It builds trust – with founders, part­ners, and with the peo­ple of Munich. When we share our progress open­ly, we strength­en sup­port for social inno­va­tion across the city.”

How do you inte­grate impact into your dai­ly work?

“We start­ed build­ing our impact mea­sure­ment and man­age­ment sys­tem ear­ly. At first, we worked with a spar­ring team to make sure we were head­ing in the right direc­tion.

That’s the mind­set we want to pass on to our impact star­tups. Ear­ly in a project or a new ven­ture, founders often lose sight of impact. The mis­sion feels clear, so the impact feels ‘obvi­ous.’ But that’s exact­ly when it’s cru­cial to define your intend­ed impact and trans­late it into mea­sur­able indi­ca­tors. As the Social Inno­va­tion Team, we sup­port this with reg­u­lar work­shops on impact mea­sure­ment and man­age­ment.– includ­ing our next ses­sion at the IMM­PACT Road­show on Octo­ber 14 in Munich.”

Where do you still see chal­lenges for founders in the IMM space?

“For many founders, the first pri­or­i­ties are fund­ing and get­ting the busi­ness off the ground. But defin­ing and com­mu­ni­cat­ing impact clear­ly is just as impor­tant. Build­ing a sol­id set of indi­ca­tors can be chal­leng­ing, espe­cial­ly for inno­v­a­tive solu­tions where impact is hard­er to quan­ti­fy and leans more toward qual­i­ta­tive or descrip­tive mea­sures. Still, it pays off to invest ear­ly in effec­tive impact man­age­ment. Clear mea­sure­ment and man­age­ment aren’t only use­ful for inter­nal deci­sion-mak­ing, they’re key for exter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tion. They cre­ate trans­paren­cy, build trust with stake­hold­ers,  and make impact a pow­er­ful com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool that can deter­mine the suc­cess of social inno­va­tions.”

How help­ful is the IMM­PACT Guide in your day-to-day work?

“We reg­u­lar­ly encour­age founders to use the IMM­PACT Guide to struc­ture their impact man­age­ment. In our Munich Impact Incu­ba­tor, we run a work­shop focused on dif­fer­ent meth­ods of impact mea­sure­ment and man­age­ment. Teams start with the IOOI log­ic they sub­mit­ted in their appli­ca­tion and refine it fur­ther, espe­cial­ly with the help of the IMM­PACT Guide. The Guide is an easy-to-under­stand tool that gives founders a clear, com­plete overview of all the key ele­ments of impact. It strength­ens team­work, increas­es trans­paren­cy, and sup­ports the entire process of devel­op­ing and sharp­en­ing their impact mod­el.”

Why is it so impor­tant to com­mu­ni­cate impact clear­ly?

Being able to com­mu­ni­cate your results and pos­i­tive impact clear­ly can make or break your abil­i­ty to secure fund­ing and attract new sup­port­ers. For impact star­tups, strong mes­sag­ing around impact builds trust with stake­hold­ers, investors, and fun­ders – and boosts cred­i­bil­i­ty. Clear impact com­mu­ni­ca­tion becomes a major lever for long-term suc­cess. A com­pelling pic­ture of your impact helps you stand out in the mar­ket and strength­ens engage­ment from both your team and your cus­tomers.