The Measurement Paradox

Every year, billions of dollars flow into programs designed to make the world better—from strengthening public health systems to advancing climate resilience and education reform. In 2024, impact investing exceeded USD 1.5 trillion globally, and philanthropic giving is estimated to reach USD 770 billion, according to Citi Bank. Yet despite this surge of capital and ambition, progress often remains uneven. Across sectors, scaled outcomes often fail to match investment levels. This disconnect isn’t just technical; it has social and economic consequences.

Funders and impact investors feel that pressure acutely. They are expected to demonstrate tangible progress across portfolios that span everything from democratic participation to maternal health. But measuring what matters—in ways that are comparable, credible, and useful for decision-making—remains one of the field’s hardest challenges.

The private sector has EBITDA and ROI. The social sector has dashboards, spreadsheets, and evaluation frameworks—each measuring something different, none speaking the same language. For more than a decade, funders have tried to move beyond counting activities to understanding outcomes. But the path from inputs and intentions to real impact remains murky.

The problem isn’t data scarcity; it’s data overload—abundant but fragmented, duplicative, and rarely connected to the decisions that matter most.

Amid this noise, Delivery Associates (DA) has been experimenting with a different approach: not another metric, but an impact-sensemaking system—a way to interpret data, connect insight to action, and strengthen accountability for the outcomes that matter most.

A Vision for Impact Measurement

Inside DA, teams were facing the same dilemma as many of their partners: lots of data, limited clarity. So, they built the beginnings of an Impact Framework—not as a reporting tool, but as a management and learning system integrated into day-to-day delivery.

As Amanda Dawes Ibáñez, Senior Project Leader, explains, “the framework helps leaders interpret results, identify what drives success, and adjust course. It blends data collection, analysis, and reflection into regular routines, turning impact management from a compliance exercise into a way of working.”

Early findings are imperfect but promising. The ambition is bold: to create something as intuitive for social impact investors and foundations as EBITDA is for corporate leaders—a practical language for performance that blends rigor with usability.

If it proves effective, it could offer one way forward for the field: not as a retrospective report, but as a live feedback system for learning and course correction.

What Delivery Associates Is Building

At the heart of the experiment are four interlocking components that together make up the Impact Framework.

“When you look at these components together, they start to function like an impact genome system,” says Juan Riesco, Chief Growth & Impact Officer. “It helps us stitch different kinds of analyses and indicators into a single picture, allowing us to crystallize trends, understand trade-offs, and generate early, directional intel—which is incredibly powerful for decision-making, learning, and continuous improvement.”

1. Conditions of Success: Predictive indicators that assess whether a project is set up to deliver. These include leadership commitment, clear goals, strong data systems, and the capacity to follow through—the everyday conditions that turn ambition into delivery.

2. Impact NPS: A combination of internal Impact Net Promoter Score (NPS) from both Delivery Associates staff and client feedback, capturing confidence in whether the work is creating meaningful change. Together, these perspectives offer an early signal of how impact is being experienced by those closest to the work.

3. Impact Modeling: A standardized approach that translates different types of interventions into outcomes categories and metrics, enabling impact to be consistently assessed, compared and aggregated. Whether looking at specific indicators or estimating the number of people positively impacted, the model maintains the logic behind how change happens. The work includes early-stage forecasts, known as ex-ante modeling, and post-project reviews, or ex-post calibration, to create useful feedback loops. Key project categories—such as type of intervention, level of support, duration, depth, and geographic context—are also incorporated to better understand trade-offs between different types of interventions.

4. The Flywheel: An understanding of how impact relates to people satisfaction and the financial health of a project or organization. The framework tests whether, when these elements move together, purpose-driven missions inspire teams; motivated teams drive stronger results; and financial health sustains long-term impact.

The scale of the experiment is considerable: data from over 110 projects and 16 metrics across more than 50 countries and multiple sectors. This is not a single number, but an ecosystem of insight, enabling DA to detect patterns across varied contexts.

The emerging analytic layer, dubbed “Impact Signals,” is designed to pick up early cues of success or risk. "We're finding the signals in the noise,” explains Melissa Abdallah. “The patterns that tell us when impact is starting to take hold.”

‍Early Insights and What We’re Learning

The Impact Framework is already shifting how DA works internally. Quarterly Impact Reviews now bring data and delivery teams together to interpret findings, highlight emerging risks, and identify bright spots.

Teams describe the framework as both challenging and empowering: “For the first time, we can see patterns we used to only feel,” says Amanda Dawes Ibáñez, Senior Project Leader.

These insights are already shaping delivery routines—from project planning and staffing to risk identification and reflection. Impact is becoming a regular discipline rather than an after-action report.

Sensemaking in an Era of Information Overload

DA’s Impact Framework’s premise is clear and timely.

In a world where information overwhelms insight, organizations need tools that help them interpret complexity, not just measure it. The framework signals a shift from accountability for its own sake to learning that drives better results.

“The framework is a work in progress,” says Thiago Lamelo, Senior Project Leader. “As we apply it, learn from it, and build its rigor, it will become a powerful tool for helping organizations make sense of their impact and steer toward better outcomes.”

Whether it becomes a new standard or simply sparks a wider rethink, DA’s experiment offers something rare in the impact field: humility, clarity, and a disciplined approach to learning.

Because in the end, the world doesn’t need more metrics: it needs better meaning.

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‍Interested in Learning More?

If you’d like to learn more about the Impact Framework or explore how sensemaking could strengthen your programs or portfolio, reach out to our team at info@deliveryassociates.com.

Acknowledgments

A special thank you to Melissa Abdallah, Diana Cáceres, Juan Riesco, Amanda Dawes Ibáñez, and Thiago Lamelo for their contributions to this story and for their ongoing work advancing the Impact Framework.