Best practices to tell the story of your incredible impact this year and generate actionable insights for 2025 and beyond
As a social impact leader, you have spent all year engaging employees in workplace giving, volunteering, and community events. Now 2024 is coming to a close and you’re asking yourself: How can I use my data to not only tell a compelling story of this year’s impact but also generate actionable insights for next year?
Here at Deed, we’ve been thinking about that a lot. We’re closely following the most inspiring corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in the world at companies like Airbnb and lululemon to come up with some tips that any company can use to measure their real impact. We’ve found that impact teams that really understand the difference between outcomes and true impact do the following:
1. Understand Your Audience(s)
2. Craft Audience-specific Reports
3. Choose the Right Format and Distribution Channels
4. Create Effective Social Impact Dashboards
5. Focus on Visualizing Social Impact Through Data
6. Make Data Actionable
7. Measure What Matters
Keep reading —or jump to the section that is most relevant to your current needs—to learn how enhanced impact measurement can help your organization close the year out strong and drive even more positive change next year.
7 Tips to Improve Your Year-End Social Impact Reporting
Tip #1: Understand Your Audience(s)
As a social impact leader, it can feel like you are accountable to everyone at your organization, since everyone is working together to make the world a better place and you are the one tasked with making that fun and easy. Your stakeholders may include your employees, your executive team, your customers, and your investors. Keep the following notes in mind when communicating with each type of stakeholder:
- Employees want to see how their individual contributions fit into the bigger picture and how their workplace supports causes they care about
- Executives need clear ROI metrics and strategic insights to inform decision making
- Customers look for authentic stories and concrete examples of your company's commitment to social responsibility
- Investors require comprehensive data that demonstrates how social impact initiatives align with business objectives and risk management
Tip #2: Craft Audience-specific Reports
Different audiences find different data points more compelling, based on their priorities, interests, and use cases for the data. When thinking of each audience, keep the following recommendations in mind:
For Employees
- Focus on participation rates and collective impact
- Highlight personal stories and team achievements
- Include leaderboards and recognition
- Share upcoming opportunities to get involved
For Executives
- Provide year-over-year comparisons
- Include benchmark data against industry standards
- Highlight cost benefit analyses
- Present clear recommendations for future initiatives
For Customers
- Create visually engaging infographics
- Share beneficiary success stories
- Emphasize community impact
- Connect initiatives to brand values
For Investors
- Include detailed metrics and methodology
- Align with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) reporting standards
- Demonstrate risk mitigation
- Show long term strategic value
Tip #3: Choose the Right Format and Distribution Channels
Depending on the story that you are looking to tell with your data and the target audience, different formats and channels will be more or less compelling.
Interactive Dashboards
- Perfect for real time monitoring
- Enable drill down capabilities
- Support data exploration
- Facilitate quick decision making
PDF Reports
- Ideal for formal presentations
- Provide comprehensive documentation
- Easy to share and archive
- Professional appearance
Social Media Snippets
- Great for broader awareness
- Highlight key achievements
- Encourage engagement
- Support recruitment efforts
Tip #4: Create Effective Social Impact Dashboards
Social impact dashboards are a great way to set up your data visualizations and watch the data populate as the year progresses, rather than needing to conduct manual data pulls and analysis every time you want to check in on program status. Thinking about using social impact dashboards but not sure how they would help you? Here are some ways social impact dashboards can help you be more effective and drive more impact:
Prioritize key performance indicators
- Total giving amount
- Volunteer hours
- Participation rates
- Matching gift utilization
- ERG engagement levels
- Disaster relief response
- Community partner feedback
Visualize your work
- Progress bars for goals
- Heat maps for geographic impact
- Trend lines for participation
- Pie charts for cause distribution
- Impact flow diagrams
- Before/after comparisons
Turn your data into actionable insights
- Clear calls to action
- Real time alerts
- Customizable views
- Export capabilities
- Sharing options
Tip #5: Focus on Visualizing Social Impact Through Data
While dense tables can be valuable as a form of raw data, visualizations will often best serve you in telling a compelling impact story:
For workplace giving data (e.g. employee giving, corporate grantmaking, corporate donations, corporate gift match):
- Bar charts for month over month comparisons
- Line graphs for trending analysis
- Pie charts for cause category breakdown
- Impact maps for geographic distribution
For workplace/employee volunteering:
- Hour trackers
- Skills-based impact metrics
- Team participation rates
- Community benefit calculations
For Employee Resource Groups (ERGs):
- ERG participation trends
- ERG-hosted campaigns, fundraisers, and volunteer opportunities
- ERG-hosted events (such as trainings or lunch and learns)
- ERG growth trends (e.g. new ERGs, increased membership)
For Diversity and Inclusion:
- Employee participation demographic breakdowns
- Beneficiary demographic breakdowns
- Initiative success metrics
- Engagement scores
Tip #6: Make Data Actionable
It’s one thing to have great data that helps you visualize the work you’ve already done, but it’s another thing to ensure that your data is helping you plan for the future. Here are some ways to make social impact data more actionable:
Short-term Decision Making
- Identify immediate opportunities
- Adjust ongoing campaigns
- Respond to emerging needs
- Optimize resource allocation
Long-term Strategic Planning
- Track year over year trends
- Identify seasonal patterns
- Plan future initiatives
- Set realistic goals
Tip #7: Measure What Matters
While it’s helpful to think about the kinds of broader ideas and strategies outlined above, sometimes what social impact leaders need most is a distilled list of key metrics to include in impact reports. Here are some metrics to consider:
Quantitative Metrics
- Donation amounts
- Volunteer hours
- Participation rates
- Matching gift utilization
- Number of beneficiaries reached
Qualitative Metrics
- Beneficiary testimonials
- Employee feedback
- Community partner insights
- Social media sentiment
- Program effectiveness surveys
How to use data to create social impact reports that inspire all your audiences
Effective impact reporting is crucial for demonstrating the value of your social impact initiatives and engaging stakeholders at all levels. By tailoring your reports to specific audiences, choosing the right formats and visualizations, and focusing on actionable insights, you can create compelling narratives that drive continued support for your programs.
Remember that impact reporting is an evolving practice. Stay flexible and responsive to stakeholder feedback, and don't be afraid to adjust your approach as needs change. With the right tools and strategy, your impact reports can become powerful catalysts for positive change in your organization and community.
Deed is an enterprise social impact platform that makes it fun and easy for millions of employees to share their time, money, and talent with causes they care about. We started as a viral volunteering app, and today our platform gives the world’s most inspiring brands—from Airbnb to lululemon—one exceptionally designed home for all of their employee engagement and purpose-driven activities. Workplace giving and donation matching; employee volunteer programs; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and employee resource groups (ERGs)—these are only the beginning.
Over the past three to five years, everyone’s expectations for Fortune 500 corporate social responsibility have radically changed. But with our trusted integration partners, including Workday and PayPal, hand-in-hand customer service, and a collaborative product team, Deed’s CSR platform moves at the speed of work.
Want to do more with your social impact data? See how Deed’s all in one social impact platform can streamline your reporting process and help you tell your impact story more effectively. Book a demo today.