We provide resources for funders and media producers seeking to build impact strategies and evaluate the outcomes of media projects.

What do we mean by impact? Not long ago, funders, outlets and makers thought about media impact primarily in terms of print or broadcast audience metrics.

In today’s complex media world, funders and makers have realized that there is much more to impact than traditional metrics—how many people watched, listened to or other otherwise experienced a story or production.

Depending on the project, impact assessment may involve tracking community engagement activities, media coverage, political or legal outcomes, increases in diversity and representation, attention from influentials, internal capacity building and much more. Specific impact metrics will differ depending on each project’s goals, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Today, there are many different kinds of tools to help funders and makers plan and tell their impact stories.

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  Key Impact Resources
  
  New to media impact? Here are some foundational resources to help you understand the building blocks of impact:

  Designing for Impact: Social Justice Documentary — Published in 2011, this impact report includes an early model for understanding media impact and case studies of foundation-funded documentaries that successfully integrated strategic design and evaluation.

  Fledgling Fund Case Studies and Resources — Fledgling publishes white papers, case studies and impact stories in order to share lessons learned with the documentary funding field. These case studies show early models of impact, which have been adopted by other media makers and funders outside of documentary.

  Funder Perspectives: Assessing Media Investments — This original MIF report highlights foundations’ varied approaches to assessing the impact of media projects.

  Impact Assessment for Nonprofit News Projects and their Funders — This is a how-to guide produced by MIF in collaboration with the Media Impact Project at the Norman Lear Center for journalism funders and nonprofit news organizations looking to develop media assessment strategies.

  Media Impact Project — The Media Impact Project at the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California works with funders and makers to conduct research on social impact productions, and publishes research reports and guides with a particular focus on media impact as it pertains to film, TV and journalism.