This Partner Spotlight features a fascinating conversation we had with Gabe Cohen, director of marketing and partnerships at True Impact. In this insightful exchange, Gabe details the transformative power of impact measurement in the non-profit sector and how organizations can better demonstrate their social value. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for aligning corporate values and goals with the data of social impact.
Join us as we explore Gabe's perspectives on creating meaningful change through impact-driven approaches.
E4E Relief: Can you tell us a bit about True Impact's origin story and mission?
Gabe Cohen: Our origins trace back nearly 20 years. We were founded by Farron Levy as a consultancy focused on advising CSR programs on the impact they were creating. It evolved from a grad student master’s thesis on evaluating the returns of corporate community investments, to a platform that helps non-profits and funders measure and maximize their impact. Our mission is to promote successful social investment by enabling donors and service providers to determine what works through shared measurement and reporting. In simpler terms, we aim to create a social sector that makes decisions based on impact data. This involves reducing the reporting burden for non-profits and fostering productive conversations between funders and their non-profit partners about effective strategies for leveraging positive change.
E4E Relief: You mentioned that True Impact alleviates the burden of data and impact reporting for non-profits. How does your platform make it easier for them?
Gabe Cohen: We developed an impact measurement wizard that incorporates our 20 years of experience into a guided tool. Think of it as a TurboTax for non-profits, helping them step-by-step to create an authentic impact story. This system is designed to be user-friendly, allowing organizations of all sizes—from small volunteer-run groups to large entities like the Red Cross—to articulate their impact effectively. We emphasize a balance between standardization and flexibility in reporting, enabling non-profits to share their unique stories while still allowing funders to make meaningful comparisons across organizations and aggregate impact data.
E4E Relief: Tell us a bit about your team and what motivates them.
Gabe Cohen: Our team is largely composed of individuals with non-profit experience, which fosters empathy in our approach to developing solutions. We prioritize creating a supportive culture that is mission driven. The heart of our organization is our Social Impact Team, dedicated to ensuring that our impact measurement tools genuinely support non-profits and donors. Their enthusiasm for doing impactful work well is integral to our success and creates a delightful work environment.
E4E Relief: What are the top impact areas that non-profits and funders are looking to measure?
Gabe Cohen: Funders are increasingly focused on measuring the alignment of their efforts with a broader purpose. We use three questions to help them evaluate this: Where do you want to make an impact? Who do you want to help (i.e., demographic groups), and What do you want to do to help them? This helps them understand not just if they are creating impact but if their impact is aligned with a larger corporate purpose, which can substantiate their work internally and externally.
E4E Relief: How do True Impact leaders help organizations determine what to measure and make sure they're capturing meaningful outcomes?
Gabe Cohen: We focus on 4 KPIs to help CSR leaders make use of their impact data.
-
Impact: How much value are you creating?
-
Alignment: Does it support your goals?
-
Efficiency: Are you doing it well?
-
Data Quality: Can you trust the data?
To get this information, we guide non-profits through a structured logic model creation process without overwhelming them with jargon; in fact, we don’t even use the term “logic model” in our platform. Instead of directly asking for a logic model, we use an escalating series of questions starting with "What are you doing as an organization?" This approach simplifies the measurement process by breaking it down into manageable steps, helping non-profits define their goals and outcomes in a more human-centric manner.
E4E Relief: Can you explain the concept of social return on investment (SROI) and how True Impact helps organizations calculate it?
Gabe Cohen: SROI is an efficiency metric that measures the social impact of an investment relative to its cost. In our platform, we define SROI as how much good to you create for every $10,000 invested. We help organizations calculate SROI by normalizing their outcomes to the number of resources they've invested. This allows them to compare the effectiveness of different programs and allocate resources more efficiently. We also build in context to this work—not all SROIs are created equal. For example, a tutoring program for high school students in an affluent area will inevitably have a higher SROI than a program in a historically underserved area. We make sure to surface these sorts of important details.
E4E Relief: What company values are non-negotiable for True Impact?
Gabe Cohen: Inclusivity, integrity, empathy, curiosity, and enjoyment—yes we know that last one may sound odd, but we want to bring joy to a process that has historically felt like such a slog!
E4E Relief: How has True Impact evolved since its inception?
Gabe Cohen: While we were initially focused on our consultancy services, we have accelerated our reach and impact dramatically since layering in a technical platform for both the measurement and analysis of impact. This shift allowed us to scale our knowledge and support both non-profits and funders more effectively. The last few years have seen continued growth as we refine our offerings and expand our mission to the broader the social sector.
E4E Relief: What are True Impact's future goals and aspirations?
Gabe Cohen: We are committed to continuously improving our platform based on feedback from users across various non-profit maturity levels and causes. Our goal is to enhance the ease of measuring impact while ensuring that organizations can tell their unique stories effectively. By fostering strong relationships between funders and non-profits, we aim to contribute positively to the landscape of social investment. We also don’t want to do this alone. That’s why partnerships, like the one we have with E4E and many other services and platforms, are important to expanding the utility of impact-driven insights. The more we can take the busy work away from non-profits, the more good they can create!
