Pro Bono Capacity Building: Evaluating What Matters Most

Evaluation matters

Few companies are equipped to validate their assumptions about how much social value their programs are generating. We see three interconnected explanations for this:

1. The sector lacks standards for measurement, leaving practitioners with little practical guidance.
2. There is a pervasive sense that some things just aren’t measurable (or are prohibitively expensive to measure).
3. Measurement that is happening in the sector often focuses on basic inputs and/or outputs, and misses the resulting social impact.

Recognizing the lack of pro bono program measurement standards and common confusion over how to measure the effects of pro bono service, Taproot partnered with True Impact and, with support from Mastercard, worked to demystify this issue and develop this practical measurement guidance for companies.