Carolina Leersch explains how her team supports local authorities in managing impact and what benefits the IMMPACT Guide offers for effective impact management.
Carolina Leersch, Impact Manager at Lokalprojekte gGmbH
1. how do you bring impact to the consultancy?
“First of all, we believe in the positive power of local authorities and administration in Germany. Going into a discussion with local authorities with this attitude creates a different starting point for every project. That is already an important effect on our part. Otherwise, we actively support local authorities in moving away from input management towards impact management: in our consulting, we remind them to focus on change and let themselves be guided by it.”
2. what approaches do you take in your own impact measurement and impact management?
“There are many people in municipalities who want to change something. They have small project ideas and want to change a small screw in the system. We support local authorities in ‘getting things done’. In doing so, we initially pursue a low-threshold approach with local projects: together with local authorities, we define what a change looks like and how people will feel after the change. We deliberately want to start lightly on the topic of impact and then gradually (iteratively) expand the project outline together with the municipality until a small theory of change for the projects is created.”
3. what added value do you see in the IMMPACT Guide?
“For me as an impact manager, the IMMPACT Guide is like a compass in the jungle of impact: there are so many methods and resources online that it’s easy to get lost. It helps to maintain an overview and systematically build a sustainable impact system. At the end of the day, we not only have a clean impact management system, but also the ability to clearly explain and document our impact. And that is worth its weight in gold — not only for funding applications, but above all for team motivation. It’s simply good to see what you can achieve together.”
