How To: Create a New Indicator in ImpactTracker

 

What is an impact indicator?

Put simply, impact indicators show if there has been a change to something or someone (stakeholders) as a result of your intervention (activities), and how much change has occurred.

The unique ImpactTracker taxonomy, ImpactMetrics, has been deliberately designed and developed in such a way that it will assist you with capturing all the different kinds of impact indicators you wish to associate your project with.

Within the Indicators section, the taxonomy works like a decision tree, providing you with prompts and specific indicators based on your selections. You will see how this works as you begin adding indicators to your project.

 

Adding a new Impact Indicator

When you create a new project within ImpactTracker you won’t have any impact data visible yet, so you need to start building out the different areas of impact!

 

The below steps will take you through how to add a new Impact Indicator to your project.

 

1. Click on the ‘Add Indicator’ button        
   
   
2. The first field is mandatory, so start by selecting from the eight different impact types or 17 UN-Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs).

• • You can hover over each icon to see which impact area it relates to and you can choose to select from only the impact types or the UN-SDGs, or you can choose from both.

• • As mentioned above, your selections will initiate the ImpactTracker’s inbuilt decision tree intelligence which means that the chosen impact types and/or UN-SDGs will determine which outcomes are listed in the following table below.

3.    Select from the list which of the outcomes most appropriately defines the outcome relating to the impact you are wanting to capture. To see more of the suggested indicators available, either navigate between the pages shown in the bottom right of the table or click and drag the green bar at the bottom of the table down.

• • If you decide that none of the suggested indicators appropriately define the impact you want to capture, you can always select ‘Other’, which will be shown at the end of the list. Selecting the ‘Other’ option will allow you to manually input your own outcome.

 

4.   Once you have selected your outcome, the following Indicator table will automatically populate based on your selection.

• • The above list of indicators has been populated by selecting the outcome ‘Change in cultural enrichment’, which you can see in the previously discussed outcome table above.
  • Select the indicator which most closely matches the impact that has taken place or, as before, you can select the option ‘Other’ to specify your own indicator.

 

Impact Indicator Favourites:

After having used the system for a short while you may find that you have impact indicators you come back to time after time. If this is the case, you can choose to utilise the Indicator Favourites functionality which allows you to add individual indicators to your My Favourites list so that you can access them at any time without having to select the relevant impact areas and/or UN-SDGs and the appropriate outcome in order to find the desired indicator.

 

5. To add an impact indicator to your favourites list, simply click on the indicator and then click the heart icon in the top right of the impact indicator table. Once clicked it will turn red. If you wish to unfavourite the indicator, click on it again to remove the indicator from your favourites.

• • To access your Impact Indicator Favourites list once you have navigated to the Indicator tab, click on the My Favourites button located at the top of the page under the UN-SDGs

• • You will also see a button that can be used to search by indicator should you wish to identify indicators relating to a particular area or that contain a specific word. Use the search bar to identify the indicator you are looking for.

6.   Once you have selected your indicator, describe the impact in as much detail as possible in the text box provided - the more context you can give, the better.

 

7.   Select a unit of measurement from the drop down list provided, so that you can quantify the impact. Again, select ‘Other’ if you want to manually input your own unit of measurement.

 

8.   Enter the values and dates both for before the impact occurred and after the impact occurred.

 

9.   Finally, you have the option to create an indicator target. Indicator targets can be used to set yourself or your project team goals relating to a particular impact and the unit of measurement you have selected to quantify that impact

 

• • For example, you may wish to set the target of increasing or decreasing the number of something more or less than it already has done as a result of your intervention and by a certain date.
    
    
  • Click on the target icon and enter a name for the target.
    
    

• • Enter the value you wish to achieve and the date you wish to achieve it by and click add.
    
    
  • You will then be shown a progress bar that tells you how close you are to reaching your set target. The progress bar will automatically adjust itself should you change any of the values relating to your impact within this indicator section.
    
    

 

10.   If you have already created your project Storyboards (or impact narratives) you will see a list of these below with the option to add the impact indicator you are creating to one or more of these. Simply click on the tick boxes to select which storyboards you wish to add the indicator too.

 

 10.   Click save. 

 

How to add evidence to a newly created Impact Indicator

To give your impact indicators more context and credibility, you may wish to link relevant evidence items directly to them. To do this you will need to follow the steps outlined below:

 

1. Navigate to the Indicator tab and click on the impact indicator you want to add an evidence item to.
   
   
2. Within the indicator and next to where you can see ‘Evidence’ you will be able to see a plus '+' icon. Click on this and you will be shown a box containing a list of all the evidence items stored in your project’s Evidence Vault.
   
   
3. Select, by clicking the tick boxes, which evidence items you want to link to the indicator and click save.
   
   
4. You will see that you also have the option to use the search bar to directly search for a specific evidence item as well as the option to add a new evidence item to your project.

• • By clicking the ‘Add New Evidence’ button you will be taken back to your project’s Evidence Vault where you can take the steps required to capture a new piece of evidence.