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Model 68 of 74 · Social & Community

Social Impact & Community Maturity Assessment

Assess how effectively your organisation creates positive social impact, engages communities, and sustains meaningful change.

Pillars & areas

Set direction & purpose

Strategise

  1. 01Social Impact Strategy & Vision
  2. 02Community Engagement & Partnerships

Deliver & measure

Implement

  1. 03Programme Design & Delivery
  2. 04Impact Measurement & Reporting

Include & sustain

Embed

  1. 05Stakeholder Inclusion & Voice
  2. 06Sustainability & Scaling

Levels

  1. 1ResponsiveInformal & reactive
  2. 2IntentionalPlanned & resourced
  3. 3SystemicCommunity-led change

01 Social Impact Strategy & Vision

Does the organisation have a clear, actionable strategy for creating social impact?

0/4 answered

SI-1How does your organisation define the social impact it aims to achieve?

Think about whether there is a documented articulation of the change your organisation wants to create in the world, or whether it is vague and aspirational.

SI-2How well is social impact integrated into organisational strategy and decision-making?

Consider whether social impact goals influence budget allocation, hiring, and strategic priorities, or whether they sit separately from core business decisions.

SI-3How does your organisation identify which social issues to focus on?

Think about whether issue selection is based on evidence and community need, or on leadership preferences and funding availability.

SI-4How does your organisation align its internal practices with its social impact mission?

Consider whether the organisation practises what it preaches — for example, if it advocates for equity, are its own hiring and pay practices equitable?

02 Community Engagement & Partnerships

How does the organisation build genuine, equitable relationships with the communities and partners it works with?

0/4 answered

CE-1How does your organisation build relationships with the communities it serves?

Think about whether community relationships are transactional (deliver a service, move on) or sustained and reciprocal.

CE-2How does your organisation select and manage partnerships?

Consider whether partnerships are chosen strategically for complementary strengths, or opportunistically based on funding requirements.

CE-3How does your organisation address power imbalances in its community relationships?

Think about whether the organisation recognises that it holds more power than the communities it serves, and what it does about that.

CE-4How does your organisation handle disagreements or conflicts with community partners?

Consider what happens when community expectations and organisational plans diverge — is the community's perspective genuinely influential?

03 Programme Design & Delivery

Are programmes designed with communities and delivered in ways that produce meaningful, lasting outcomes?

0/4 answered

PD-1How are social impact programmes designed?

Think about whether programmes are designed by internal teams in isolation, or whether the people who will be affected are involved in shaping them.

PD-2How does your organisation adapt programmes when they are not working as expected?

Consider whether there are mechanisms to detect underperformance during delivery and make changes, or whether programmes run to completion regardless.

PD-3How does your organisation ensure programmes are accessible to the people who need them most?

Think about whether barriers such as language, disability, geography, digital access, or cost prevent the most marginalised groups from participating.

PD-4How does your organisation manage the transition when a programme ends?

Consider whether communities are left with sustained capacity when programmes conclude, or whether progress evaporates once funding stops.

04 Impact Measurement & Reporting

Does the organisation measure what actually changes for people, and report on it honestly?

0/4 answered

IM-1How does your organisation measure social impact?

Think about whether you measure activities completed (outputs) or changes in people's lives (outcomes).

IM-2How does your organisation use impact data to improve its work?

Consider whether impact reports sit on a shelf, or whether the data actively shapes future programme design and resource allocation.

IM-3How transparent is your organisation about its impact results?

Think about whether the organisation shares only successes, or whether it is honest about mixed results, failures, and unintended consequences.

IM-4How does your organisation involve communities in defining and validating impact?

Consider whether communities get to say what 'success' looks like, or whether success is defined entirely by the organisation and its funders.

05 Stakeholder Inclusion & Voice

Are the people most affected by social issues genuinely included in decisions about how to address them?

0/4 answered

SV-1How does your organisation ensure diverse representation in its decision-making?

Think about whether the people making decisions about communities reflect the demographics and lived experience of those communities.

SV-2How does your organisation gather and act on feedback from the people it serves?

Consider whether feedback mechanisms are accessible, safe, and whether they actually lead to change.

SV-3How does your organisation protect the dignity and agency of the people it represents in communications?

Think about whether marketing, fundraising, and storytelling portray people as helpless recipients or as active agents in their own lives.

SV-4How does your organisation ensure that marginalised voices are not drowned out by more powerful stakeholders?

Consider whether funders, government partners, or vocal community leaders dominate discussions at the expense of those most affected.

06 Sustainability & Scaling

Is the organisation building impact that lasts beyond individual programmes and grows beyond individual communities?

0/4 answered

SS-1How does your organisation plan for financial sustainability of its impact work?

Think about whether impact depends entirely on grant cycles, or whether the organisation has diversified its revenue to sustain long-term work.

SS-2How does your organisation approach scaling its impact?

Consider whether scaling means replicating the same programme in more places, or whether it means spreading the principles and adapting to local context.

SS-3How does your organisation contribute to systemic change beyond its direct programmes?

Think about whether the organisation only delivers services, or whether it also works to change the systems that create the problems in the first place.

SS-4How does your organisation build the capacity of communities to sustain impact independently?

Consider whether communities become more capable and self-sufficient through their engagement with your organisation, or whether they remain dependent on your continued presence.

Self-assessment report

Social Impact & Community

Answer the questions above and your report builds here: an overall score, a score and target for each area, and the three changes that matter most.

About this model

About the Social Impact & Community maturity model

Social impact work is only as strong as the relationships it is built on. Too many organisations measure their contribution by what they deliver rather than what changes for people. This model challenges organisations to move beyond activity-based thinking and toward genuine, community-driven, sustainable change. It holds that the most effective social impact organisations are those that redistribute power to the people they serve, measure what actually matters, and design themselves out of a role as communities become self-sufficient.

The Social Impact & Community maturity model assesses how effectively an organisation creates positive social impact across six interconnected areas: strategic clarity, community relationships, programme quality, impact measurement, stakeholder inclusion, and long-term sustainability. It is designed for organisations at any stage of their impact journey, from those delivering their first community programme to established institutions seeking to embed social impact more deeply into their operations.

The model uses three maturity levels that reflect a progression from informal, organisation-centred approaches to systemic, community-led practice. Each level describes concrete, observable behaviours rather than abstract aspirations, making it possible to identify exactly where an organisation stands and what meaningful improvement looks like.

The assessment contains 24 questions across 6 areas, each scored against three maturity levels. It is intended for honest self-assessment, not external certification.

Who this assessment is for

  • Nonprofits, NGOs, and social enterprises seeking to strengthen their impact practices
  • Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) teams evaluating their community investment approaches
  • Foundations and grantmakers assessing the maturity of organisations they fund
  • Government agencies and public sector bodies delivering community-facing programmes
  • Social impact consultants and advisors benchmarking client organisations
  • Community development organisations evaluating their own practice against sector standards
  • Impact investors conducting due diligence on potential investees

The three maturity levels

Level 1 — Responsive

Social impact efforts are informal, reactive, and disconnected from organisational strategy. The organisation may deliver programmes that help people, but it does so without a clear theory of change, without meaningful community input into design or governance, and without measuring whether lasting change occurs. Partnerships are transactional, power imbalances are unexamined, and sustainability depends on continued external funding. At this level, the organisation is doing things for communities rather than with them.

Level 2 — Intentional

Social impact is planned with clear goals, dedicated resources, and structured community relationships. The organisation has a documented impact strategy, measures outcomes alongside outputs, and engages communities in programme design. Partnerships are managed with formal agreements and shared expectations. The organisation recognises power imbalances and takes steps to address them, though community voice does not yet drive decisions. Financial sustainability is actively pursued through revenue diversification. At this level, the organisation is working with communities but still holding most of the decision-making authority.

Level 3 — Systemic

Social impact is embedded across the organisation, driven by community voice, and designed for lasting systems-level change. Communities co-define success, participate in governance, and hold real decision-making power. The organisation measures long-term outcomes, reports transparently including on failures, and actively works to change the systems that create the problems it addresses. Programmes are designed for community ownership from inception, and the organisation measures its own success by whether impact continues without it. At this level, the organisation is accountable to communities, not just to funders.

The 6 areas assessed

1. Social Impact Strategy & Vision

This area examines whether the organisation has a clear, evidence-based understanding of the change it wants to create, and whether that vision drives real decisions. A strong impact strategy is not a marketing statement — it is a working document that specifies populations, problems, and outcomes, and is stress-tested against community realities. Mature organisations ensure their internal practices align with their external mission, and they revisit their strategic focus as conditions and evidence evolve.

2. Community Engagement & Partnerships

This area assesses the quality and equity of the organisation's relationships with the communities it serves and the partners it works with. At lower maturity, community engagement is extractive — the organisation takes what it needs (data, stories, participation) and gives back only what the programme offers. At higher maturity, relationships are reciprocal and sustained, partnerships are structured around shared power, and conflict is treated as a healthy part of genuine collaboration.

3. Programme Design & Delivery

This area evaluates whether programmes are designed with the people they are meant to serve, delivered with the flexibility to adapt when things are not working, and concluded in ways that leave lasting capacity. It distinguishes between programmes designed at a desk and programmes shaped by lived experience, and it examines whether accessibility is a design principle or an afterthought. Strong programme delivery means the organisation can stop doing what is not working as readily as it can start what is.

4. Impact Measurement & Reporting

This area looks at whether the organisation measures what actually changes for people — not just what it delivers. It examines whether impact data is used internally to improve practice, reported honestly to external audiences, and validated by the communities whose lives the data is meant to represent. Mature measurement means being willing to publish findings that are uncomfortable, and treating community-defined indicators of success as equal in weight to funder-defined metrics.

5. Stakeholder Inclusion & Voice

This area assesses whether the people most affected by social issues are genuinely included in decisions about how to address them. It examines diversity in governance and leadership, the accessibility and effectiveness of feedback mechanisms, the ethics of how the organisation represents the people it serves, and whether marginalised voices carry genuine weight in decision-making. Inclusion at the highest maturity level means those closest to the problem have the strongest say in the solution.

6. Sustainability & Scaling

This area evaluates whether the organisation is building impact that outlasts individual programmes and grows beyond individual communities. It examines financial sustainability, approaches to scaling impact (not just programmes), engagement with systemic root causes, and the extent to which the organisation builds community capacity for independence. The most mature organisations in this area actively work to make themselves unnecessary — their measure of success is what continues after they leave.

How this model relates to other frameworks

  • UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — global framework for social, economic, and environmental impact targets
  • Social Return on Investment (SROI) — methodology for measuring and valuing social, environmental, and economic outcomes
  • Impact Management Project (IMP) / Impact Frontiers — consensus framework for measuring, managing, and reporting impact
  • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) — standards for sustainability and social impact reporting
  • B Corp Assessment — comprehensive assessment of social and environmental performance for businesses
  • OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria — relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability criteria for development programmes
  • Participatory Action Research (PAR) — methodology centring community participation in research and programme design
  • Theory of Change — planning and evaluation approach linking activities to long-term outcomes through causal pathways

Frequently asked questions

What is the Social Impact & Community maturity model?

Assess how effectively your organisation creates positive social impact, engages communities, and sustains meaningful change. It is an original, simplified model with three maturity levels (Responsive, Intentional and Systemic), assessed through 24 questions across 6 areas: Social Impact Strategy & Vision, Community Engagement & Partnerships, Programme Design & Delivery, Impact Measurement & Reporting, Stakeholder Inclusion & Voice and Sustainability & Scaling.

How long does the Social Impact & Community assessment take?

Most people finish in 10–14 minutes. Each of the 24 questions has three concrete answer options. Your progress is saved in the page URL, so you can bookmark it and come back later.

How is the score calculated?

Each answer scores 1 (Responsive), 2 (Intentional) or 3 (Systemic). An area's score is the average of its answered questions, and the overall score is the average of the area scores, so every area counts equally. Scores run from 1.0 to 3.0.

Is my data stored or shared?

No. Your answers are never sent to a server. They are stored only in the page URL, which you control. Copy the link to share results with colleagues, or export a PDF or CSV report.

How should I use the results?

Start with "Where to focus" in your report. It lists the questions with the biggest gap to the target you set for each area, and shows what the next level looks like in practice. For a fuller picture, ask several people from different teams to complete the assessment and compare their links. Differences in perception are often as revealing as the scores themselves.