ABSTRACT
Organisations that are determined to plan and track impact need to develop their own baselines for their key impact targets. Baselines may come from inside organisations, or from outside. They are essential to setting good impact objectives. Impact objectives will be truly useful only if they are SMART. Any baseline that is going to be used needs to be checked at regular intervals to ensure that it remains current and credible. Credibility depends mainly on two factors: solidity and stability. Planning is everything. It is rare to discover that too much time has been spent on planning. Projects may be planned with what their participants believe to be good process. The key to ensuring that this does not happen is to use the thinking behind Theory of Change to move from inputs-focused, supply-sided plans into measurable objectives informed by clear needs plans that are demand-sided. Perspective can also come from looking at averages.
