Tool 4: Re-imagining reporting

UNDER CONSTRUCTION - to be published in early August

The final piece of the IPL puzzle is a new approach to reporting that focuses on the organisation’s contribution to outcomes and honestly reflects its learning through the voices of its constituents. This kind of reporting is an integral part of the organisation’s learning process.

One dimension of reporting is the formal report back to constituents and other stakeholders against your theory of change and your strategic goals. In the IPL system, formal reports should focus on your contribution to outcomes as reflected by the evidence you have gathered and the feedback you have received. Reports should be engaging public documents – in other words written in a lively accessible style for all constituents and stakeholders, and not simply to account to funders. Reports should stimulate inclusive dialogue on the conclusions and the way forward.

This kind of constituency validated impact reporting demonstrates legitimacy and impact in a credible and authentic way.

We recognise that many current funder-grantee relationships discourage this kind of openness and honesty. So Keystone also works with grantmakers encouraging them to see themselves as co-constituents of the change process and learning partners whose policies and practices can greatly influence the impact of their grantees.

But reporting also includes all the ways in which you communicate your work through publications, web site, press articles, presentations and meetings etc. In public communication as in formal reporting, we feel that the same focus on impact and learning and public validation through constituency voice should apply.