Ultimately, a key purpose behind gathering monitoring information is to establish the extent to which the activity supported is addressing the purposes and priorities of the community benefit package, and ultimately, the needs and aspirations of the community. In order to do this, it will be very helpful if information on the outcomes and likely impact of the activity is gathered, collated and presented in a consistent way.

Purposes and outcomes

If there is a clearly defined set of purposes or outcomes (and perhaps priorities) for the community benefits, then of course these should be used.

Monitoring forms can ask recipients to state which purposes/ outcomes (however these have been defined) their funded project or activity has contributed towards and the manner in which it has done so. Many community projects are multi-faceted, with potential to bring about a wide range of outcomes, so it can be useful to offer recipients the opportunity to select a more than one project purpose/ outcome, in order to get a more rounded picture of the difference the project has made.

Data received

The monitoring data received can then be aggregated in a variety of ways, such as:

  • The number of projects funded that contributed to each outcome/ purpose (according to the projects’ main or primary outcome, or all outcomes selected by recipients)
  • Spend per outcome/ purpose/ category
  • Number of beneficiaries supported per outcome/ purpose/ category.

This can be presented according to various timescales, e.g. the most recent year of activity, past three years, or life of the support to-date.

Evidencing impact

Aggregated data on outputs and outcomes will provide one source of evidence that the community benefit package is achieving its desired impact. This can be supplemented by other techniques for capturing the difference made to beneficiaries by the activities funded, such as case studies, films, pictures, and collection of stakeholder feedback.

The monitoring process should encourage those receiving awards to collect a variety of impact evidence in ways that are meaningful and accessible to their particular beneficiaries. A photograph, painting, song or a story may tell us a lot more about a project’s impact than knowing how many people attended an event or training session.