Defining and measuring impact

How we define impact

We define impact as a positive, measurable change in outcomes for individuals. Across our social impact investment portfolios, we further define positive impact as occurring when an individual has successfully gained access to a critical resource, demonstrated learning, and/or engaged meaningfully in the formal economy.

Beyond this, positive impact is defined as and varies by social impact sector. All our grants are intended to support underserved individuals and communities. Therefore, in some cases, we consider equitable access to information, knowledge, and resources to be early indicators of, and lead to, long-term positive impact.

How we define impact

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Selected examples of positive impact for each of our social impact sectors include:

Crisis response/Critical human needs: Quicker, more efficient, and/or easier access to essential humanitarian relief resources and services; increase in smallholder farmer yields, productivity, income, etc.
Education: Enhancements in curriculum content and delivery that lead to increases in student attendance, interest, persistence, engagement, and/or confidence; decreases in drop-out rates; increases in student mastery of subject matter, etc.
Economic empowerment: Technical and professional skills training that enables people to obtain jobs that provide stable and sufficient income and pursue career development opportunities toward independence and economic security; new businesses created and sustained, increase in business revenue, new jobs created, etc.
Climate impact and regeneration: Growth in number of farmers adopting and maintaining regenerative and resilient agriculture practices, increased protection of natural carbon sinks, etc.

As we executed against our 1 Billion Lives goal, underscoring our commitment to accountability and transparency, we engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct a limited external assurance of our methodology and impact. We published a detailed guide on how we approach impact evaluation, how we define positive impact, our measurement process, validation methodology, and more—including PwC’s assurance report. Learn more: One Billion Lives Positively Impacted.