Project Overview
Birmingham Disability Resource Centre (DRC) is a powerhouse of support and advocacy for local people with disabilities. They do incredible work, but like many organisations in the social sector, they needed a solid way to measure and articulate the impact they were making.
The senior leadership team at DRC recognised the importance of not just doing good work, but also being able to demonstrate that work’s impact—both to funders and the communities they serve. My role was to guide them through this process, helping to create tools that would make impact measurement an integral part of their operations.
Over the course of the project, we developed two key deliverables: An impact framework and a Theory of Change document. Both of which were designed to help DRC’s senior leadership team track their impact more effectively and work towards outcomes that were internally driven as much as they were Funder driven.
Project Outcome
Here’s how we turned ideas into actionable impact tools for DRC:
- Impact Framework:
- We worked together to build a comprehensive impact framework that aligned with DRC's mission and goals. This framework included a detailed indicator and outcomes map, which laid out exactly how DRC's activities translate into measurable results. The purpose of the map was also to act as a living document that the team could refer to regularly, ensuring that they were always clear on how their work was driving impact.
- Theory of Change Document:
- To support the framework, we also developed a Theory of Change document. We connected activities to outcomes, capturing the core of DRC's mission and their roadmap for achieving it, helping the team stay focused on their long-term impact aspirations.
- Strategic Clarity and Direction:
- The process of creating these tools allowed the senior leadership team to gain new insights into DRC's impact and discover ways to align their strategies even more closely with their mission, so their outcomes could be more 'organisationally driven rather than just funder driven'.
- Enhanced Reporting:
- With the impact framework and Theory of Change, DRC can now report their outcomes clearly. Providing them with a powerful narrative to attract future funding and partnerships
- Ongoing Impact Assessment:
- Thanks to the Outcome Framework and ToC , DRC now has a reliable way to keep track of their impact. Helping them make informed decisions to continuously improve their services.
TL;DR The collaboration with DRC was all about helping them articulate the incredible value of their community work. By the end of our project, they had a solid foundation for measuring and communicating their impact—an essential step in ensuring that they can continue to serve the disability community with even greater effectiveness.
N.B: All work with Birmingham Disability Resource Centre was funded by Big Issue Invest for whom JMK & Co was an associate Business Consultancy.
