Measuring impact in think tanks

Measuring the impact of your think tank and its work is rarely straightforward. Impact and influence can take many forms, from informing government and party policy, to shaping the overall policy debate or providing much needed expertise and research for different policy areas. But the path between a think tank’s work and its eventual impact is often indirect and poorly marked. How to measure and show a think tank’s impact and influence is therefore a topic that is regularly raised for discussion across our different network events. To reflect this we have organised this online webinar workshop to more formally gather together everyone with an interest in this topic and give it the focus it deserves.

This online meeting will bring members together to explore how UK think tanks are approaching the challenge of measuring, understanding and demonstrating their impact. We will be asking attendees to share their ideas, approaches and the current measurement tools they are using or experimenting with. We will also be looking at the challenges in measuring impact – both internally and externally and how best to counteract them.

This session is open to all members but we particularly encourage colleagues who are involved in thinking about, discussing, developing or organising how impact is measured within their think tank (whether at an organisational, programme or project level) to join us. The aim is to learn from one another’s experiences and leave with useful ideas that everyone can use and adapt for their own organisations.