Impact evaluation

Impact evaluation is like asking whether something you did really made a difference or not. For example, imagine you wanted to know if wearing a helmet while riding a bike makes you safer. You could compare the number of accidents and injuries of people who wear helmets versus those who don't. This would be an impact evaluation.

Impact evaluations are important because they help us understand if the things we are doing to make the world better are actually making a difference. This means we can use our resources more effectively and improve the way we do things.

To do an impact evaluation, we need to collect data and compare it to what might have happened without the thing we are evaluating. For example, if we want to know if a new program to help kids learn to read in school is making a difference, we could look at test scores of kids who have gone through the program and compare it to kids who haven't.

Overall, impact evaluations help us see the real-world effects of our actions, whether they are good or bad, and help us make better decisions for the future.