Gathering Evidence
Evaluating impact is part of how change is noticed, shared, and understood. It invites reflection, supports learning, and helps make the process more visible:
When thinking about how to gather evidence of impact, it can be useful to start with a few core questions:
- What does meaningful change look or feel like in this context?
- Whose voices, experiences, and interpretations matter?
- What forms of expression feel natural or accessible to the people involved?
Evidence does not always need to be numbers or written reports. If a project uses images, group discussions, or movement-based activities, the evaluation can use the same approaches. Collecting evidence should fit the way the project already works and feel natural for those involved. Some imaginative and adaptable approaches include:
- Creative reflection tools: Experiences could be recoded on postcards, journals or audio diaries to prompt personal reflection throughout a project. These can be revisited over time to track shifts in thought or feeling.
- Surveys and questionnaires: Asking just a few questions at the start and end of a method, meeting or project can offer useful insights, especially if framed around values, expectations, or confidence. If participants are willing, following-up by way of representing the same questions a few weeks or months later, can reveal if insights, practices, or relationships have continued, thereby potentially revealing longer-term impacts.
- Participatory timelines
A group might co-create a timeline to document their shared journey, adding key events, moments of learning, unexpected developments and challenges. This can be done collaboratively using online tools, or the facilitator or convener can take responsibility for assembling the timeline. - Creative exit prompts
At the end of an activity or project, invite participants to respond to a prompt such as “What stays with you?”, “What changed for you?”, or “What would you like to carry forward?” - Symbolic objects or metaphors
Ask participants to choose or create an object, drawing, or metaphor that represents their experience or a change they have noticed. These can be shared in a group or recorded individually. - Mini-interviews or peer storytelling
Short conversations either between facilitators and participants, or between participants, can be recorded or written up, allowing them to reflect together on what changed and why it mattered. - Feedback walls or message trees
Set up a wall, board, or tree where participants can anonymously or publicly share reflections, questions, or moments of insight. These can accumulate over time and serve as a visual trace of group learning. - Creative metrics
If funders or institutions require qualitative metrics of change, consider if these could be adapted to tell a more in-depth impact story. For example, rather than just counting participants, consider noting the number of new connections made, ideas generated, contributions to a method.
In this video Amélie Dakoure explains the importance of co-creating impact evidence with participants:
Rigour in Evidence
Rigour refers to the quality, credibility, and trustworthiness of a research process. In participatory and creative work, rigour involves transparency, reflexivity, and consistency in how decisions are made and data is interpreted.
Triangulation of methods and sources
Where time permits consider also using more than one method or perspective to explore a question. Triangulation supports more balanced insights and helps identify patterns or contradictions. This might include:
- Combining visual methods (like mapping or drawing) with interviews or reflective writing
- Gathering feedback from different participant groups or roles within the project
- Comparing individual stories with collective exercises like timelines.
Reflexive documentation
Keep a process journal or shared log where facilitators and participants can reflect on decisions, shifts in dynamics, and personal learning. This encourages critical awareness and transparency about how meaning is constructed. This might include:
- Recording why certain tools or prompts were chosen
- Noting moments of discomfort or disagreement and how they were addressed
- Reflecting on the role and responsibilities of the facilitator and participants
Participant checking and sense-making
Creating opportunities for those involved to review and interpret findings, prevents risk of misrepresentation and strengthens relevance. This might include:
- Story circles where participants comment on emerging themes
- Collaborative analysis sessions using printed quotes or images
- Playback exhibitions where visual or audio material is reviewed and annotated by participants
Iterative feedback and adaptation
Rather than finalising tools in advance, test them early and where necessary make adjustments based on what works in accordance with the characteristics and dynamics of any particular context and group. This improves clarity and accessibility while building trust. This might include:
- Piloting a story prompt with a small group and revising the language based on their responses
- Running a short feedback loop after the first session to check if the evaluation approach feels right
- Revising indicators mid-way based on participant input
Interpreting Impact
Once evidence has been gathered, the next step is making sense of it. Interpretation can involve surfacing meaning, identifying patterns, and recognising tensions. This deepens the learning that has already begun through engagement and reflection, and can help shape a compelling impact story:
You might begin with some reflective questions:
- What stands out, and why?
- Were there any surprises or contradictions?
- What does this suggest about the assumptions made at the start?
- What might need to change in future work?
The methods you choose to interpret your data should reflect the nature of your evidence and the people involved. For instance:
- Group discussion with visual prompts: Review drawings, photos, or maps together. Ask participants what each item represents, and whether their interpretation has changed over time.
- Theme sorting: Spread out written reflections, quotes, or notes and invite the group to sort them into themes, tensions, or emotional tones. Use this to explore common ground and difference.
- Symbolic interpretation: Use objects, colours, or post-it notes to map relationships, power dynamics, or movement across time. Ask participants to explain their choices.
- Journey Mapping: Invite those involved with the method to draw a timeline or visual story of the project, including key moments, shifts, or decisions. The map can be annotated with reflections on what influenced those changes and what they learned along the way.
- Reflection wheel: This uses a circular format with different segments representing areas of change such as relationships, confidence, practical skills, or influence. Rate each area and describe what contributed to a high or low score. When repeated at different times, this can show patterns of movement or stagnation.
It is also important to remember that in participatory and creative projects impact rarely follows a straight line. What emerges often differs from what was first planned. Unexpected outcomes take many forms. Rather than seeing these as deviations, they offer insight into how change happens. Reflection can be supported by asking:
- What changed that was not part of the original plan?
- Who benefited in ways that were not anticipated?
- What tensions or difficulties arose, and how were they addressed?
- What continues beyond the formal end of the project?
In this video Amélie Dakoure reflects on ways to tell an impact story:
