Impact doesn’t just “hap­pen.” It can be designed, man­aged, and improved

---

Kol­ja Mis­sura, Clara Roberts and Tere­sa Jakovlev from Salt & Impact

How much do we gain when impact is man­aged strate­gi­cal­ly? And how much do we lose when it isn’t? These ques­tions mat­ter for any orga­ni­za­tion that wants to cre­ate real, last­ing change. In prac­tice, we often see that good inten­tions aren’t enough. What’s miss­ing is a struc­tured approach to impact – and a strat­e­gy for mak­ing it stick.

Impact can be planned and mea­sured

A strate­gic approach aligns your work with long-term change. Sys­tem­at­ic impact man­age­ment gives teams the tools to define their impact log­ic, test it, and con­tin­u­ous­ly refine it. Impact shouldn’t be treat­ed as a “nice-to-have,” it should be at the heart of your orga­ni­za­tion­al strat­e­gy.

What we learned from the field

While devel­op­ing Salt & Impact, we spoke with dozens of orga­ni­za­tions. We often heard some­thing like: “We don’t mea­sure impact, but we can see it in the kids’ smil­ing faces.” Smiles are won­der­ful, but impact goes much deep­er.  It means changes that are mea­sur­able, last­ing, and ver­i­fied. When that poten­tial isn’t har­nessed, projects rarely achieve all they could.

We also heard con­cerns that keep orga­ni­za­tions from div­ing deep­er into impact man­age­ment. The term is gain­ing atten­tion but is often dis­missed as a buzz­word. And def­i­n­i­tions vary. That’s fine – as long as we agree on one core prin­ci­ple: Impact is (at least par­tial­ly) mea­sur­able – and it can be man­aged.

Com­mon chal­lenges in impact man­age­ment

Many orga­ni­za­tions face sim­i­lar bar­ri­ers when it comes to impact man­age­ment:

• Lim­it­ed capac­i­ty: Dai­ly oper­a­tions take over, impact man­age­ment gets post­poned.
• Com­plex­i­ty: Too many meth­ods, and no easy start­ing point.
• Mea­sure­ment con­cerns: Long-term, qual­i­ta­tive changes feel hard to quan­ti­fy.
• Fear of bureau­cra­cy: Many wor­ry that impact man­age­ment means more admin work.

Often, impact sim­ply isn’t seen as urgent. But expe­ri­ence shows that when impact is part of the strat­e­gy ear­ly on, results are stronger and more sus­tain­able.

Why projects fail with­out strat­e­gy

A com­mon mis­con­cep­tion is that every dol­lar should go direct­ly into pro­gram deliv­ery, not into man­ag­ing impact. The Play­Pump sto­ry shows why that’s risky:

A mer­ry-go-round that pumps water while kids play? Charm­ing idea. In real­i­ty, the water out­put was too low, pump­ing required too much force, main­te­nance costs were high  – and adults often end­ed up doing the work. The project failed because the impact was nev­er strate­gi­cal­ly planned. The les­son here is that sus­tain­able impact demands design, plan­ning, and invest­ment.  A por­tion of every bud­get should go toward impact man­age­ment – to ensure suc­cess that lasts.

The­o­ry of change: A strat­e­gy tool that works

One of the most proven approach­es is the The­o­ry of Change, which is also a core ele­ment of the Lean Impact Jour­ney. It helps orga­ni­za­tions align their activ­i­ties with long-term out­comes.
It sup­ports orga­ni­za­tions in:

• Clar­i­fy­ing the vision: What change are we work­ing toward?
• Map­ping the strat­e­gy: Which actions will get us there?
• Iden­ti­fy­ing risks: Where might our assump­tions fail?
• Defin­ing indi­ca­tors: How will we know it’s work­ing?

Instead of hop­ing some­thing will “cre­ate impact some­how,” the The­o­ry of Change enables tar­get­ed man­age­ment and suc­cess mea­sure­ment. It answers a key ques­tion: Are we real­ly mak­ing a long-term dif­fer­ence?

Prac­ti­cal ways to get start­ed

In the real world, heavy frame­works can feel over­whelm­ing – and quick­ly lose pri­or­i­ty. What mat­ters is not per­fec­tion, but progress. That’s why prac­ti­cal tools like the IMM­PACT Guide work so well:

• Start small: Impact man­age­ment does not have to be ful­ly com­pre­hen­sive right away. Even sim­ple indi­ca­tors cre­ate vis­i­bil­i­ty.
• Improve iter­a­tive­ly: Test, learn, and adjust – don’t wait for the “per­fect plan.”
• Focus on what mat­ters: Mea­sure the changes that tru­ly define your impact.

Bot­tom line: Impact is a strat­e­gy – not an acci­dent

If orga­ni­za­tions want to dri­ve sus­tain­able change, activ­i­ty alone isn’t enough. They need to know why some­thing works – and how to steer suc­cess.

Inte­grat­ing impact man­age­ment ear­ly helps use resources more effec­tive­ly and achieve results that can be demon­strat­ed. Strate­gic impact man­age­ment should be a core part of every orga­ni­za­tion, from day one.

About the authors:

Kol­ja, Clara and Tere­sa come from back­grounds in phi­los­o­phy, pol­i­tics, psy­chol­o­gy, and eco­nom­ics. After years in the social sec­tor, they searched for ways to do good more sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly – and with real results. Influ­enced by “Doing Good Bet­ter” and impact man­age­ment the­o­ry, they rec­og­nized the pow­er of strate­gic impact plan­ning and found­ed Salt & Impact. Their goal: make evi­dence-based, data-dri­ven approach­es prac­ti­cal and acces­si­ble – so resources go where they mat­ter most, and real change hap­pens. Because the world’s biggest chal­lenges are solv­able – if we act smart and strate­gi­cal­ly.

Bahar Kay­gusuz