Measuring impact - who counts?
The risk business
1 December 2007
Alliance magazine
Donors work in a context where it’s often impossible to measure success in numerical terms, and where assessing impact at all can be problematic. Taking risks is intrinsic to grantmaking. But if the outcomes of a decision are uncertain, how do you assess the risk involved? Can better outcome measurement offset risk or does an obsession with measurement make funders too cautious and risk-averse? Alliance asked a selection of funders how much risk they are prepared to run, how they assess it, and what methods they adopt to minimize it.
What’s at stake – and for whom?
