Impact Reporting 101
Every community organisation we work with is already making an impact. Far fewer feel confident reporting it.
So let's start at the beginning. What actually is impact reporting? Why does it matter so much? And what's the difference between all the acronyms that get thrown around: ESG, SROI, SSP, RBA, narrative reports, impact reports?
So, what is impact reporting?
Impact reporting is how an organisation shows the difference its work makes. Not just what it did, but what changed, for whom, and how it knows.
It helps to picture a simple ladder (which you climb from the bottom!):
The impact ladder
Read from the bottom up ↑-
Inputs
The resources you put in: people, volunteer hours, funding, kai, vans, venues.
-
Activities
What you do with them: running programmes, workshops, a food bank, mentoring sessions.
-
Outputs Where most reporting stops
The countable things that result: 400 food parcels, 32 workshops, 120 rangatahi enrolled.
-
Outcomes
The changes people experience: more confidence, better health, a job, a stronger sense of belonging.
-
Impact
The longer-term, wider change you contribute to: healthier whānau, thriving communities, fewer people in crisis.
simpact AI · simpactai.com
Most reporting gets stuck at outputs, because outputs are easy to count. The real story lives higher up the ladder — and that's what good impact reporting is for.
Why impact reporting matters
Trust is the currency of the community sector. Funders, donors, communities and volunteers all want to know their contribution is making a difference. Clear, honest reporting builds that trust over time.
In Aotearoa, some reporting is required by law. Registered charities must file an annual Performance Report with Charities Services, which includes non-financial information such as activities, output and outcomes alongside the accounts. Larger (Tier 1 and 2) charities have had to prepare a Statement of Service Performance under PBE FRS 48 for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2022. Smaller (Tier 3 and 4) charities have their own simpler-format standards, so performance reporting is now part of the job for almost every charity.
Impact reporting helps you learn, not just prove. The best impact reporting isn't a performance for funders. It's a feedback loop that tells you what's working, what isn't, and where to put your limited time and energy next.
It unlocks funding. Funders increasingly ask for evidence of outcomes, not just activity. Organisations that can tell a clear, evidenced story are better placed to secure and keep funding.
It gives communities a voice. Done well, impact reporting centres the people and communities you serve — their words, their priorities, their definition of what "better" looks like. Done badly, it reduces them to data points.
And here's the tension we hear about constantly: many small organisations write a different report, in a different format, for every funder. The reporting burden is real, and it takes time away from the mahi itself.
The alphabet soup of reporting, explained:
These approaches aren't competitors. They answer different questions, for different audiences, with very different levels of effort.
Statement of Service Performance (SSP)
This is the compliance baseline for NZ registered charities. Under PBE FRS 48, the information must tell the reader why the charity exists, what it wants to achieve, and what it actually did during the year to move towards those goals. Think of it as the skeleton your other reporting can hang on.
The question it answers: Why do we exist, and what did we do this year to move towards our goals?
Mainly for: Charities Services, the public, funders
Effort for a small NFP: Low to medium — it's required anyway, often outsourced to an accountant
Annual report
The annual report is the organisation's yearly look back at itself as a whole. It typically brings together a chair's or CEO's message, highlights from the year, people and governance updates, and the financial statements — often shared at the AGM. It's broader than an impact report, which zooms in on the change you create. A useful tip: let your annual report be the home for your SSP, so the compliance work and the storytelling work reinforce each other rather than happening twice.
The question it answers: How did our whole organisation fare this year — people, programmes, finances and governance?
Mainly for: Members, board, funders, supporters, the public
Effort for a small NFP: Medium
Impact report
A voluntary, usually annual, report that goes beyond compliance. It blends numbers with stories, photos, quotes and learning to showcase the impact you've made. There's no fixed format — which is both its freedom and its challenge.
The question it answers: What difference did we make, and how do we know?
Mainly for: Funders, donors, community, board
Effort for a small NFP: Medium
Narrative or storytelling reporting
This puts lived experience at the centre: case studies, quotes, whakaaro from participants, reflections from kaimahi. Narrative carries meaning that numbers can't. It is strongest when paired with evidence, so the story is representative rather than the one shining exception.
The question it answers: What did change feel like for the people involved?
Mainly for: Community, donors, funders, media
Effort for a small NFP: Low to medium
Results-Based Accountability (RBA)
Widely used by government agencies and funders in Aotearoa, RBA organises measures around three simple questions: How much did we do? How well did we do it? Is anyone better off? Its plain-language framing makes it a practical bridge between outputs and outcomes.
The question it answers: How much did we do? How well did we do it? Is anyone better off?
Mainly for: Government and many philanthropic funders
Effort for a small NFP: Medium
Social Return on Investment (SROI)
SROI puts a monetary value on social outcomes, producing a ratio such as "for every $1 invested, $3 of social value is created". It follows the Principles of Social Value set by Social Value International: involve stakeholders, understand what changes, value what matters, only include what is material, don't over-claim, be transparent, verify the result — and, more recently, be responsive. SROI can be powerful for advocacy and commissioning conversations. It is also resource-intensive, and a single headline ratio can hide a lot of assumptions.
The question it answers: What social value was created for every dollar invested?
Mainly for: Funders, investors, government, commissioners
Effort for a small NFP: High — often needs specialist support
ESG and sustainability reporting
ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting grew out of the investment world, as a way to assess risk and responsibility. In NZ, mandatory climate-related disclosures apply only to a small group of large financial market participants — and the Government narrowed the regime further in late 2025, lifting the listed-issuer threshold from $60 million to $1 billion. For most NFPs, ESG matters less as a reporting obligation and more as a language: it's how your corporate partners and sponsors increasingly describe their own "S" (social).
The question it answers: How do we manage environmental, social and governance risks and impacts?
Mainly for: Investors, lenders, corporate partners
Effort for a small NFP: High — built for larger entities
Two foundations sit underneath all of these:
A theory of change (or logic model): this maps out how your activities lead to long-term impact. Without one, performance reporting is just guesswork.
Kaupapa Māori and Indigenous approaches to evaluation: remind us that "success" must be grounded in the worldview, cultural values, and genuine aspirations of the communities being served, rather than being imported from elsewhere.
So which one should you use?
For most community organisations, the honest answer is: a blend, sized to your capacity.
A few principles we keep coming back to:
Start with your why. A simple theory of change makes reporting easier, and more consistent.
Collect once, use many times. Design your data collection so the same evidence can feed your SSP, your funder reports and your annual impact story.
Pair numbers with voices. A statistic tells you how many; a story tells you what it meant. You need both.
Be proportionate. A volunteer-run group doesn't need a full SROI. A well-structured SSP and a handful of good stories can go a very long way.
Don't over-claim. You are usually one contributor among many. Honest reporting about contribution, rather than sole attribution, builds more trust, not less.
Where AI fits (and where it doesn't)
This is the space simpact AI was built for. AI can help pull together data that lives in different places, draft a first version of a report, or reshape one core story for different audiences. That frees up human energy for the parts that matter most: deciding what the story is, checking it's true, and making sure community voices are represented with care.
That's why we build with a human-in-the-loop. AI can support the telling. The story still belongs to the people who lived it.
Something to ponder…
What's the one report your organisation dreads writing each year, and what would change if it took half the time?
Sources:
Want your next report to take half the time?
simpact AI helps community organisations bring their data, stories and mahi together into reports they're proud to share, with a human in the loop at every step. Let's kōrero about your next report, sign up below or book a free discovery call right now →