For children and youth, short- and long-term goals for improvement of their lives are defined by what is known as the “Theory of Change” of impact projects. With this approach, the participants construct hypotheses for change in children’s lives, attach indicators and metrics, and devise data collection tools and plans.

The program participants provide data on the number of children and cases of changes in children’s lives three times a year, and social impact assessment data at the end of the first or in some cases second year of the project.

We track the development of the organizational capacity of impact projects using a tool called the Development Tracker.

The Tracker measures development in five areas:

• social impact;

• financial sustainability;

• leadership and team;

• social impact scaling;

• systemic changes.

Each sphere has its own subgoals. At the beginning of the year, the participants together with the program manager record the baseline status and define development targets for each subgoal. The status is updated throughout the year based on actual performance.

To track the development of organizational capacity, the Foundation also collects certain quantitative indicators from participants and analyzes their growth and multiplicity. Besides the number of children, these indicators include the number of staff and volunteers, financial performance, and project coverage.

The dynamics of project development, measured through quantitative indicators, vary from year to year, but based on data from previous years, we can say that the number of children receiving support traditionally at least doubles every year (for projects that were past the idea or prototype stage when joining the program).

To track project survival and scalability, we survey the alumni of the Incubator program every two years. And to isolate the Foundation’s contribution, we ask participants to separately assess our program’s impact on their development.

Here is a short listing of the assessment tools used by the Foundation:

• Development Tracker;

• Special reporting forms and surveys;

• Social impact cases;

• Internal research;

• Interviews with impact entrepreneurs, mentors, and other stakeholders;

• Program alumni surveys, a biennial survey of all alumni from different years.

To learn more about the social impact assessment system and program results, check our annual report[5].

It is important to emphasize that to enter the Incubator program, participants go through a lengthy selection process where they have to prove the effectiveness of their project in solving the problems of children or young people. Throughout the year in the program, we gather their data continuously, including information that, among other things, reflects changes in the lives of the children: the participants provide social impact cases three times a year, describing how the children’s lives change. These cases are based on interviews with the child or his or her representative (parents, guardians, specialists) and follow a predefined structure.

We also collect data three times a year on the number of children receiving support. At the end of the first, or in some cases, second year of participation in the program, the participants provide social impact assessment data, i.e., changes in the lives of children/community, reflected through specific indicators or metrics.

The alumni receive a shorter questionnaire, which, however, contains more complex questions: whether they measure social effects, i.e., the achievement of long-term social impact goals, whether their actions are contributing or have already contributed to creating systemic change, etc.