It presents the results of a review of existing scientific literature as well as official reports and policy documents on impact measurement methodologies and results. Furthermore, it includes the results of TSI meetings with national and European third sector stakeholders in seven countries since the launch of the project in January 2014 in the form of a set of consensus impact indicators, both at micro (personal) and macro (societal) levels.

The aim of this working paper is to give an overview of the existing knowledge on impact and to elaborate a consensus-based set of impact indicators within the following theory-based impact domains: well-being and quality of life; innovation; civic engagement, empowerment, advocacy and community building; economy and human resources.

Chapter 2 addresses the question what is impact? It outlines the areas where impact is currently and offers a definition. Chapter 3 presents reviews of existing literature, official reports and policy documents. Subsequently, a theoretical framework is described in Chapter 4, in order to identify and locate the impacts occurring in the different areas. In Chapter 5 specific methods for measuring impact on different levels are introduced and compared. Finally a consensus-based set of indicators in each of the five impact domains is elaborated in chapter 6. Chapter 7 concludes the paper.

Authors are TSI researchers Ruth Simsa and Olivia Rauscher, with contributions by Christian Schober and Clara Moder.

TSI aims towards a clearer understanding of the third sector in Europe – its scope and scale, existing and potential impacts, and barriers to full third sector contribution to the continent’s common welfare. Third Sector Impact addresses all those areas in comparative research combined with a unique stakeholder engagement process to capture the insights of practitioners and include them in conceptualisation, methodology and project outputs.

Learn more about TSI and download the Working Paper.