If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing. W. Edwards Deming Chidi asked her students to write about the cookery club for her donor, to send alongside their photographs. She asked them to explain what they liked about the youth club, why it was important to them, and why […]
Category Archives: Toolkit 3 – Impact Measurement as a Gift to Leaders
Another way that we can show our youth clubs’ impact is through stories. Collecting stories and testimonies is challenging, although it is natural to tell them in many of our African traditions. Donors and funders want to see how their money impacts women’s and girls’ lives thanks to your youth project. They want to know […]
Another way that Chidi could look at her youth work is through Outputs, Outcomes, and Indicators. Chidi also has project outcomes. These are the changes that she promised that she could deliver for young women and her community. We have already explored this a little when we looked at the money that Oscar’s family gave […]
Chidi was successful in getting a grant for the girls’ club from the local branch of an international law firm. The law firm wasn’t experienced at giving grants, and they had looked to other funders to understand how they measured impact. The law firm asked Chidi to define her Outputs, Outcomes and Indicators when she […]
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. Barack Obama Dr Brown, one of Chidi’s volunteers and a retired headmistress, spoke to Chidi after the cooking session. “The girls weren’t paying attention today. […]
I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good. Maya Angelou Oscar’s family agreed to send $25,000 to the youth club building […]
People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others. Blaise Pascal Your youth club donors, funders and supporters are already convinced about why you are doing something. They have chosen your youth club as a solution to a problem they have recognised to exist: young women having few […]
When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are. Oprah Winfrey When donors give, there is always an expectation that your youth club leaders will demonstrate impact, and that you have spent their money well. Donors and funders are stakeholders we need to manage closely. In Toolkit One we followed Chidi’s […]
People in poverty typically feel deeply ashamed at being unable to fulfil their personal aspirations or to live up to societal expectations due to their lack of resources. Such shame not only hurts, adding to the negative experience of poverty, but undermines confidence and individual agency, can lead to depression and even suicide, and may […]
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. J. K. Rowling Chidi’s right-hand woman, her friend Margaret, approached her after the girls club had finished when the girls had left, and […]