Our database of impact tools includes frameworks, apps, and case studies of high-impact media projects to help you think through your impact assessment strategy.

Storytelling strategist Lina Srivastava has adapted Alex Osterwalder’s influential Business Model Canvas for media producers. Social innovators and media makers can use and modify the framework to suit their projects’ specific goals.

Newslynx is an open source platform developed by Brian Abelson & Michael Keller of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. It was developed, after extensive research with newsrooms, to “improve upon existing methods of displaying quantitative metrics and to add qualitative information that was previously nonexistent in such tools.” It does this by adding context to metrics, providing tools for tracking indicators outside of reach, understanding that “real-world impact measures are often messy and hard to categorize.”For a deeper explanation of the project read this white paper.

NewsWhip Analytics helps news organizations understand content performance and make strategic decisions about distribution by providing a near-real time view of comprehensive social media and engagement data. Users can also compare and analyze engagement trends over longer spans of time.

This primer into outcome harvesting provides a useful overview for funders and grantees seeking to understand impact when causal relationships aren’t entirely clear. Rather than “measure progress towards predetermined objectives or outcomes,” outcome harvesting “collects evidence of what has changed and, then, working backwards, determines whether and how an intervention contributed to these changes.”

Racial Equity Tools “offers tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas” for people working for justice “at every level— in systems, organizations, communities and the culture at large.” Step-by-step resources on evaluation hone in on issues of power and privilege in impact assessment.

This battle-tested tool for nonprofit communications campaigns developed by Spitfire Strategies and the Communications Leadership Institute walks users from planning through measurement.

Developed by Spitfire with support from the Ford, Hewlett and Packard Foundations, the SmartScan™ is a free tool designed to “help nonprofits assess where they are poised to be communication powerhouses and where they have room to improve.” After answering in-depth questions about their organizational communication practices, users receive a custom report with suggestions for improvement.

This working paper by Jessica Clark and Barbara Abrash synthesizes efforts to develop comparable evaluation methods for social issue documentary films and includes case studies of relevant efforts.

This Ikea-inspired toolkit for newsroom processes developed by Financial Times staffers provides a “set of resources and material to help reporters and editors better plan, execute, and evaluate editorial projects.” Read more about this Ikea-inspired workflow and how it can increase impact here.

In this book, media strategist Tracey Friesen combines case studies and interviews with successful producers, funding information, key story ingredients, outcome goals, and worksheets to help guide makers, funders and activists looking to use media to create lasting change.

StoryPilot is a multi-functional tool that uses data analysis and powerful visualizations to help media makers better understand the social impact of documentary films. Users can explore metrics around more than 500 documentaries addressing issues such as education, health, and human rights, and apply insights from these films to their own projects.

Paul VanDeCarr of Working Narratives walks readers through a series of case studies that reveal the power of stories as a tool for learning, organizing, educating and advocating—and feature related benchmarks tailored to the projects’ goals.  He calls for “evaluation that is both artful and scientific, that allows magic to happen even as it uses numbers and neuroscience to understand how people respond to stories.”