Welcome to our June impact round-up. Each month at NCVO Charities Evaluation Services we summarise the latest news in impact and evaluation and share useful guides, resources and data collection tools.
Launch of upgraded resource: Measuring Up!
Are you looking for practical, targeted recommendations to help you improve your impact practice? Measuring Up is a free self-assessment tool designed by NCVO CES for Inspiring Impact which offers step-by-step guidance on all aspects of impact practice. Using this tool, you can understand what you need to do to plan for impact, do measurement, assess your data and review your work more effectively.
The new, upgraded version of Measuring Up has more helpful tips and a cleaner, more user-friendly design with practical recommendations to improve your impact practice. Check it out at
Funding Central – help to search and apply for funding
NCVO’s Funding Central is an online database listing funding opportunities for voluntary and community organisations, charities and social enterprises, You can search information on thousands of grant funding and social investment opportunities, receive personalised funding updates and learn about funding with advice and online tools.
Funding Central helps its users to find new funding opportunities, saving them time and and helping them to become more sustainable.
New resources for measuring effectiveness
Two new guides have been published in the last month to help you measure your effectiveness in specific subsectors:
The Centre for expertise on child sexual abuse have recently published a practical guide on ‘measuring your effectiveness’ for organisations who provide intervention or recovery services for children at risk of or affected by sexual abuse. It provides accessible, step-by-step guidance for organisations including downloadable templates and worksheets.
The Center for evaluation innovation have also recently launched a report on evaluation in policy advocacy services. The report proposes six ways to reorient advocacy monitoring and evaluation to be more credible, reliable and useful. Download the report.
NCVO Almanac launched
The UK Civil Society Almanac 2019 is now available.
Get all the latest facts and figures about the voluntary sector, and explore the trends that are shaping its future.
This year, we’ve launched a brand new, more user-friendly website. In addition to giving a comprehensive overview of charities’ finances, we’ve expanded our coverage of their overall value and contribution, workforce and volunteering.
All the data and charts are available to download, and we’ve also written a special member-only how to use the Almanac guide (just log in to access).
On the blogs and social media
Our colleague in the research team, Lisa Hornung, outlines the key insights from this year’s Almanac in her blog.
We are continuing our series on Theory of Change with a special blog for Small Charities Week, written by senior consultant Sini Rinne-Kerridge.
NPC have released the second in their series of insight papers sharing learning from the Youth Investment Fund.
Training and events
NCVO provides training and events covering a range of topics, from impact to governance, volunteer management and data protection reform – with discounts for NCVO members (Not a member? Find out more).
Here’s what’s coming up:
How to report on outcome and impact data: 25 June
Outcome and impact measurement (2 days): 4 and 5 July
Outcome and impact measurement (1 day): 5 September
Developing your theory of change: 12 September
We can also come to you! Our courses can be delivered at your venue, providing an affordable way to train groups of staff, trustees or volunteers. Contact us for more information.
Amira is a senior consultant at NCVO Charities Evaluation Services working across projects including delivering open and in-house training, supporting clients to build their evaluation capacity, conducting external evaluations, and supporting clients with strategy development. 
