Impact Measurement & Management

Qatalyst helps governments, impact investors, foundations and businesses define, measure and verify the social, economic and environmental impact of their investments and programs. Its work applies standards such as IRIS+, the SDGs and ESG, and includes impact visualizations for Arctic Inspiration Prize laureate projects.

Whether you are managing government investments, private investment funds, or are a social entrepreneur, you need a structure and a process to measure and manage your finances. You also need a structure to measure and manage the impact your funds or activities have on people and planet

Our Service

We serve four distinct market segments:

• All levels of government (national, regional, local and Indigenous)
• Impact investors, funds and community development agencies
• Foundations, trusts non-profits and venture philanthropists
• Private sector

What is common across the four market segments is that each makes investments and other expenditures with intent generating positive impacts, each wants to better understand the impact of their investments, programs and expenditures and each wants to feed that knowledge back into strengthening their strategies, and improving program design and execution. Within each segment, we work with clients to define the impacts to be measured, determine how we are going to measure those impacts, and then collect, compile, analyze and/or validate impact data and assess the opportunities for improvement. The way in which we do that and the relative emphasis we place on different aspects varies across the four segments.

Our team members have extensive experience in the development of KPIs tailored to our client needs and trained in the incorporation of standards and guidelines including government evaluation policies and standards related to SDG Impact, IRIS+, PRI, Impact Principles and ESG.

Our Approach

We continue to broaden our range of services to enable us to not only track the impacts of our client’s investment, programs and services but also prepare strategies for improvement and, when needed, assisting clients to implement those strategies. We work with organizations at the individual investment level, at the program or portfolio level, or at the organizational level. Our core IMM services include:

• Developing theories of change, KPIs, impact framework and tracking systems and tools for collecting reliable data and information
• Conducting impact assessments. We work closely with our clients to craft approaches that can produce solid evidence and meaningful analysis about the impacts under review.
• Enhancing strategies and execution. Most impact assessments focus expenditures that were made in the past. However, the real value of such reviews lies in their ability to inform future decision-making and future strategies.
• Impact Verification and System Review. Some organizations have developed IMM methodologies and hire us to review their processes and assess the reliability of the data that they have compiled. Based on the results, we can verify the results, comment on the effectiveness of their approach, and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Tool, database and dashboard development. We can design, develop or adapt online tools, surveys, databases and APIs to facilitate collection, compilation, analysis and reporting of data.